Wild
by mediahybrid117
Summary: In the event that Phantom Planet doesn't even happen, four years follow. Danny, Sam and Tucker are eighteen and are preparing to graduate. Something goes wrong and Danny takes off, and questions whether or not he'll ever come back. Blood, curses, if you expect anything else from me, then you are reading the wrong story. Rated T.
1. Chapter 1: Graduation

**This is in no correlation to _any_ of my previous stories.**

"Guys, do you know where I put my thermos?" Danny asked, the sleepy-eyed teen had dug under his bed, through his dresser, into his closet and even dumped out his hamper of dirty laundry. The container was nowhere to be found. His room was now twice the mess it was before and he was even beginning to trip over things.

"I couldn't tell you, Danny." Sam answered on the other line of the phone. She sat with Tucker at his place and held the missing thermos. "Shouldn't you be studying? Finals are tomorrow." She pointed out.

"You know I always go on a flight every night." Danny answered exhaustedly.

"That should be an exception when finals are tomorrow." Tucker said, "Besides, didn't you get like- _no_ sleep last night?"

"Or the night before?" Sam added.

"Look- I haven't had any decent sleep in a little over a week- I'm exhausted." Danny replied, unsure that it was even a week.

"And aren't you grounded until tomorrow night anyways? Because of finals?"

"I get it!" Danny snapped, "Look- I'm just paranoid. Whenever I do try to relax, some ghost starts running amok and Mom and Dad can't catch the damn thing." He sighed. Then he paused, "Wait- you guys have my thermos, don't you?"

"No." Sam said defensively, "Why would we take your thermos?" she asked.

"Un-fucking-believable, why do you have my thermos? You guys don't think I can relax, do you?" Danny rolled his eyes and changed forms, his Bluetooth ear piece turning from red to green in the process.

"No, Danny, we _know_ you can't relax- there's a difference. Don't worry about ghost-hunting tonight, your parents should be on patrol tonight anyway." Sam said. "Just study, okay? We called Jazz, she should be on her way over there to help you out."

"You did _what_?" Danny asked in shock, Jazz had moved out two weeks prior and had her own apartment across town. She worked at a child care center and helped teach children. "Why!?"

"We've finished our study guide, Danny. You haven't even finished page two." Sam said.

"How would you know that?" Danny asked.

"Because I helped you finish page one and you don't do your homework." Tucker argued.

"Yeah I do." Danny argued, changing back to his human half.

"Not all of it." Sam said.

Danny sighed, "Fine! Fine, I'll stay home." He scratched the back of his head. "I want my thermos back tomorrow though." He said agitatedly.

"That's fine. Just as long you walk with us." Sam said, "We're not leaving school without you." She smiled.

"No promises." Danny sighed, but also smiled. "If my final grade is failing or a D, I'm repeating senior year." He plopped down on his bed and grabbed his backpack.

"You won't repeat senior year, Danny." Sam sighed. "Just let Jazz help you with your study guide and you'll be fine." She said.

Danny sighed, "Fine. I'll talk to you guys when it's done, okay? We'll compare answers."

"Okay, sounds good." Sam said with a smile, "Talk to you later." She said.

"Talk to you later, guys." Danny said and hung up. He looked up as the doorbell rang. He got up to greet the visitor, knowing his parents had already gone out on their patrol. He answered the door, greeting his sister.

She hugged him, "Hi, how are you?"

"Grounded." Danny said, "By Mom and Dad, and by Sam and Tucker."

All Jazz could do was laugh, "How did Sam and Tucker ground you?" she asked.

"They stole my thermos." He said, "Then they called you."

"Ouch." Jazz said, stepping inside, "Are Mom and Dad home, by the way?"

"No, they went out on a patrol." Danny shook his head.

There was a clatter in the basement.

Jazz jolted, "What was that?"

"It's _who_ …" Danny corrected her firmly. "Someone must've gotten out of the portal. Dad must've left it open." He sighed and started for the downstairs lab. Jazz followed close behind. As they reached the basement, Danny's eyes met the chubby ghost in overalls that- regardless of how long they've known each other- always announced himself. The ghost turned around, "I am the Box-"

"Dude, how many times to we have to go over this?" Danny cut him off.

"How dare you interrupt me?!" he asked dramatically.

"I've been kicking your ass for four years, I know who you are." Danny crossed his arms, "What are you doing out here?"

The Box Ghost paused and looked down, "I followed another ghost out here…" he said, "I was just going to bring her back." He twiddled with his hands.

"I'll get her later, if not, then my parents will. Don't worry about it." He said, "Just get back into the portal."

"But-"

Danny's eyes began glowing green, as he lowered his hands, "Do it…" he warned, one of his hands lighting up with an ecto-charge.

The Box Ghost reluctantly backed into the portal. After he vanished into the portal, Danny shut it.

"Wow." Jazz chuckled, "You don't even have to fight _him_ anymore." She smiled.

Danny's eyes went back to normal and the ecto-charge faded, "It gets old after four years…" he sighed. "Let's just get this study guide done so I can go catch whoever he was coming in after." He started upstairs.

"Are you okay?" Jazz finally asked, grabbing his shoulder so he would turn to look at her. He saw the dark rings under his eyes and the lack of emotion shown through them, "When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?" she asked.

He thought for a moment, wobbling slightly. "Sometime last week?" he guessed.

"Danny…" Jazz sighed, "Know what- you're finishing that study guide and then you're going to bed. This isn't healthy." She said.

"But who's going to-"

"Mom and Dad. They're out right now, aren't they? Let _them_ handle the ghosts, you worry about your finals tomorrow and _then_ you can go hunt ghosts _after_ you graduate." She said.

Danny sighed, "Alright, fine. But only because I don't have the energy to argue with you."

"Good." She smiled.

The following day, Danny sat down in class after downing his third can of a store brand energy drink. Sam sat down next to him and finally looked up at him, "Whoa, Danny, are you okay?" she asked.

He bounced his leg, "Jazz and I were up until about… two this morning." He said, tapping his pencil rapidly on the desk. Dark rings remained under his eyes, but they were wide open.

She rose her eyebrows, "Why?" she asked, considerably concerned.

"We were talking. In the end, I wasn't tired and not going to bed anytime soon, so we just talked." He said, his eyes were wide open and darting across the room, taking in just about every detail. In that class, and four of the following classes, Danny was first to finish each final.

In his final class, math, he struggled to keep his eyes open enough for the numbers to jumble in his head. He blinked back into focus. He took a deep breath and multiplied the 13. Completely unsure of his answer, but he stuck with it. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, his forehead almost touching the desk.

The calculus teacher watched the class and took note of Danny's slouch. "Mr. Fenton?" he called, receiving no response from the unconscious student.

Sam glanced over and saw that Danny had truly fallen asleep. "Uh- he was up all night finishing his study guide." She said.

The teacher glanced over at her, then looked down at the one packet without a name on his desk, "Would it be the only study guide that isn't labeled with a name?" he asked.

The other students were now watching the conversation and their eyes followed the teacher across the room. The teacher stood next to Danny's desk and carefully slipped the test out from under the sleeping eighteen-year-old. He studied the packet for a moment then took it back to his desk and began grading it.

Sam and Tucker exchanged nervous looks before going back to their own tests. The teacher smiled after a while and set Danny's test aside.

Sam grew tense. She was concerned that Danny's falling asleep in class was going to dock him for his grade. She took a deep breath and was seventh to pass in her test, Tucker followed third after her. Once all the tests were handed back, the class was given freedom to talk quietly and enjoy the remainder of the class. Sam and Tucker sat quietly and nervously. Glancing over at Danny, who still slept with his upper body slumped over the desk. He took a deep breath and stirred. He then sat straight up, "Where's my test?!" he gasped and checked the floor.

Sam put a hand on his shoulder, "Whitman already took it." She said, "You fell asleep and he took it back to his desk."

Danny sunk, "I wasn't done…" he rubbed his eyes.

"He looked pretty impressed." Tucker said.

"Daniel, can you come up here, please?" he asked.

Danny jolted and looked up at Whitman, who looked at him expectantly. He quickly made his way up to the desk, "I'm sorry Mr.-"

"Don't be." The math instructor interrupted Danny, "I'm sorry I scared you by taking your test away." He said, "I just wanted to tell you that I am very impressed and I saw an amazing improvement in your performance. Not only did you get a hundred on your study guide, but the one problem you didn't finish on your final, you had the math right- so far." Whitman shrugged, "You didn't finish the problem, so I couldn't say for sure." He smiled, "Regardless- if you had finished the problem correctly, you would've passed this final with flying colors. But instead, you finish this this final with a ninety-eight." He held out his hand to shake Danny's congratulations, Daniel." He smiled, "I look forward to seeing you at the ceremony."

Danny smiled, "Thank you so much." He said and sat down beside Sam and Tucker.

"What happened?" Sam asked, confused with his ear-to-ear grin.

"I passed." He laughed, almost hysterical and leaning on his desk.

Sam chuckled, "Danny, when did you wake up?" she asked.

Danny paused for a moment, "I never went to bed." He said.

Tucker gave him a strange look, "But you said you went to bed at 2?" he said

Danny furrowed his eyebrows, "No wait- _Jazz_ went to bed at 2. I didn't get _any_ sleep…" he explained, then rested his head on his desk, "I couldn't sleep…" he took a deep breath.

The following night, after Danny had gotten enough sleep and was declared no longer grounded, he went out on a flight to scope the school area for ghosts, trying to keep the area under control and ghost-attack free. "See anything down there?" he asked into his headset.

"We're picking something up in the lab. Be careful." Sam replied.

Danny flipped and dove in through the roof, narrowly missing a thrown beaker. Danny froze up in response to this. He looked over at the one throwing the beaker, "C'mon, Poindexter." He sighed, "Look, I know you're pissed because you died before graduating, but-"

"Just leave me alone, Fenton!" the ghost snapped, turning back around and leaning on the counter in frustration. His hands firmly on the countertop, his head lowered and his shoulders raised.

"What's going on?" Tucker asked in the headset.

"It's Poindexter." Danny explained quietly, "I got this. Just- keep scanning the school grounds for more ghosts." He said, approaching the trembling figure in front of him. "Dude, you know I can't just leave you in here."

"Why- because it's your job?" he asked, barely turning his head to speak to him, his tone was bitter and almost insulted. Danny noticed that Poindexter tended to act up every year this way. He discovered that it was almost finals when Poindexter died.

Danny sighed, "Sort of… I'm not even getting paid to do this." He said, "I'm graduating tomorrow night and I'm trying to keep it… safe for everyone." He thought for a while, "I'm trying to keep everyone from getting attacked by ghosts in this… once-in-a-lifetime event." He explained.

The former student grew visibly tense, his hands beginning to glow.

"I really am sorry." Danny said, "And unfortunately… there's nothing I can do _but_ to apologize." He thought for a moment, "Think of it this way- who the bully? The ones graduating? Or the one ruining the ceremony?" he asked.

Poindexter sighed, "Good point," he looked down and closed his eyes. "I understand." He turned to him and looked at him sullenly, "I wouldn't want someone destroying the ceremony dedicated to my hard work either anyway…" he said, then he shrugged with a slight smile, "You know I believe in karma."

Danny found himself flying outside of the building and closing the lid to the thermos, "That gets harder every year." He commented into his headset.

"What, Poindexter getting stronger?" Sam asked.

"No… getting more understanding. He just surrendered." Danny sighed.

"Whoa- behind you!" Sam and Tucker both barked, causing Danny to flinch and hold his ear.

A shot fired just beside Danny and barely missed him, only enough for him to feel the heat of the plasma, "Whoa, guys, that was a little too close to me." He strayed from his path slightly and looked above and behind him.

"That wasn't us!" Sam cried defensively.

Danny looked down at the ground instead, barely dodging another shot fired by his parents down below. He spun and vanished into a flurry of ice crystals, avoiding another blast, as he reappeared, he flew straight and started getting away from the school, "Guys, I need you to get them off my tail." He said. He wasn't even aware that his parents were even on patrol that night. He thought they were just going to spend time in their lab. Their radars must've gone off while he was hunting.

"On it." Sam said, watching Danny trying to avoid getting shot by his parents. "What should we do?" she asked.

"I don't care- anything." Danny flipped and barely dodged another shot. "But quick."

"Lure them to us." Tucker commanded, holding the Fenton thermos that he and Sam shared.

Danny took a deep breath before coming to a screaming halt, gently planting his feet against a brick wall of a tall building and kicking himself in the other direction, leaving cracks in the bricks from the force of his rebound.

Jack and Maddie tripped in trying to keep him in their sight. Why the Ghost Boy _didn't_ just phase through the wall intrigued them. He was acting strangely lately. Maddie was easily a few feet ahead of Jack, keeping the Phantom in view, "I got him, Jack!" she barked before firing at him again.

Their disguised son dove to avoid getting hit. "Guys, what's the plan?" he asked, picking up a little speed.

"Just get them over here." Tucker said.

"I'm going to assume you guys haven't moved since we started." Danny said.

"First word of 'assume' is 'ass', Danny, don't assume. Yes, we're still here, we haven't moved anything around." Sam said sarcastically.

"I got it, I got it." Danny rolled his eyes and dove into the alley that Sam and Tucker hid in, "Incoming!" he barked.

Tucker gripped the thermos and the lid tightly. The second Danny flew passed them and as soon as Tucker felt the wind that followed, he opened the thermos and hit the release switch, releasing every ghost that Tucker and Sam had captured that night.

Danny turned around to see what Tucker had done, astonished and somewhat outraged, "Come on, dude! That took us all night!"

Tucker and Sam had hid, hoping to avoid being found by Maddie, "You said to do _anything_ , Danny. Don't be picky." Sam whispered.

Maddie gasped and paused at all of the ghosts that Danny appeared to kick up. She growled and tapped into her headset that she used to communicate with Jack, "Honey- the Ghost Boy kicked up a bunch of other ghosts. You run after him, I'll clean up his mess." She growled in frustration, "You'd think the boy's mother would've taught him to clean up after himself."

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other out of the irony in the comment.

"You going to be alright, Maddie?" Jack asked, 'Taking all those ghosts on your own?"

"Just go after the Ghost Kid." She said, "I've seen these other ghosts before, they're definitely weaker than Phantom. I'll be fine."

Jack kept his eyes to the sky and followed the silver streak flying ahead of him. He picked up the pace and hurried behind Danny, aiming to shoot. He fired a blazing ecto-ray, hitting Danny's side hard enough to hit him off track.

Danny caught himself before he hit a building. He gripped his side and turned around to see Jack, "Uh… guys? Where's my mom?" he asked.

"She's cleaning up the ghosts I released." Tucker said. "We don't know where your dad is." He watched Maddie and kept his voice low. She had already recaptured two ghosts and was now trying to capture a third.

"I know where my dad is, I'm worried about my mom." Danny said. "She's the one who normally has the better aim."

"Right- wait, are you okay?" Sam asked.

Danny pulled his white-gloved hand away from his side to see it dyed partially with red and green. He took a deep breath, knowing he'd had worse. "Dad managed to hit me. His aim is getting better." He said.

Sam and Tucker looked at each other in concern and looked around for Maddie, who had appeared . Once they were sure the coast was clear, they jumped out of hiding and ran to look for Danny. However, when they turned the corner, they ran full force into Maddie, knocking all three of them to the ground. The two young adults froze, then scrambled to their feet as Maddie picked herself up off the ground, "Sam, Tucker? What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Looking for Danny." Tucker blurted out in a panic. Sam did everything in her power to keep from slapping him.

"Looking for-" Maddie grew concerned, "Is he okay? What's wrong?"

"Y-yeah." Sam nodded, trying to keep her tone even, "He was supposed to meet us at the bowling alley and he might've gotten lost or sidetracked. We decided to meet him halfway just in case." She said.

Maddie took a moment to analyze the difference in Sam's tone and in Tucker's tone. She knew she was lying. She looked over at the equipment that was sloppily thrown into a bag and poorly stashed behind a trash can. "Uh-huh…" she nodded, "What's that over there?" she asked.

Danny dodged another shot and cursed Jack's determination and surprising stamina. "Guys, I could use a little help here!" he said.

Maddie picked up an opened Fenton thermos, "What is this doing here?" she asked. She paused, "Are you kids…?"

Sam and Tucker grew cold, trying hard to resist answering Danny's panicked calls. They knew he was in trouble, but if Maddie knew why they were looking for Danny, it'd give him away.

"You two are ghost hunting…" she said, "Or is…" she shook her head, "Where's Danny?" she commanded.

"Guys, I seriously need-" the headset cut off after a loud crackle of ear-piercing static, Tucker threw his headset out of his ear and Sam flinched. Maddie jumped after seeing this.

Sam focused on the headset, "Danny?" she called. "Danny, you alright?"

Danny groaned and held the side of his head where his ear rang loudly. He forced his vision back into focus and picked himself up, dropping back to his hands and knees.

Jack stood in horror at the child in front of him, blinking and even squinting to make sure what he was seeing wasn't a trick. "Jack? Jack!" Maddie cried in his headset, "Something's wrong with Danny, Sam and Tucker can't connect with him!"

Jack remained silent, his eyes didn't blink as he stared at what he had believed was the Ghost Boy. He took a deep breath and carefully approached his son. He knew what was wrong with Danny… he shot him out of the sky.

"Jack? Baby, can you hear me?" Maddie asked in a panic.

"H-Hold on, Maddie…" Jack breathed and muted his headset. "Danny?"

Danny jolted and looked up at him with half-blurry vision. His sky-blue eyes widened in fear, his black hair messy from the fall. His breaths heavy and uneven and his body shaking as though he'd been thrown in cold water. The left side of his head bled and even dripped down the side of his neck, seeping slightly into his white shirt. He inched away with every step that Jack took.

Jack stopped trying to approach him, afraid that if he got too close, Danny would run off or even fight back out of rage or fear. At this point, he deemed his son unpredictable. "Danny, wh- why didn't you-?" he breathed, "Why didn't you say anything? H-how did this happen?"

Danny only looked at him in fear. His heart pounding harder than he felt that he could handle, one or two beats faster he'd have a heart attack. His breaths had grown quick and shallow, almost to the point of hyperventilation. The blood in his ears clouded his hearing. His vision could only cloud everything but Jack.

"Jack!" Maddie called and from around the corner. Danny snapped his attention to her, everything coming back into focus. He changed forms, got to his feet, and jumped up to fly off all in one motion just as Maddie came into view. He flew faster than anyone was able to see him. Maddie watched him fly off and aimed at him. Jack ran over and threw his weight into the ectoplasmic cannon, throwing off her aim and being sure that she would miss Danny.

"Jack, what happened? You had him! You were just going to-" she shrieked at him.

Jack gripped Maddie's arms and held her tightly, "That was Danny!" he shouted.

"What?" Maddie looked at him strangely. "Baby, what are you talking about?"

Jack glanced behind Maddie and noticed that Sam and Tucker were watching Danny fly off. Tucker was even picking up the shattered and slightly bloody headset that Danny had worn before. Jack let go of Maddie and approached the two, "Where is he going?" he asked.

Sam shook her head, "I don't know…" Sam sighed, knowing that Jack had figured it out.

"What do you mean, you don't know!?" Jack growled, "He tells you two _everything_ , doesn't he?"

"It's not like he can tell us now." Tucker said and showed him the destroyed headset, "This was his. And I don't think he'll answer his phone after this…"

Jack grew cold, seeing the blood on the small electronic. He cupped his hands over his face and walked in a small circle.

"Jack, what is going on?" Maddie asked.

"Danny _is_ the Ghost Boy." Jack turned to her. "Danny must be… half-ghost. Or… something." He paused, "Wait- did you two know about this?"

The Fenton couple looked down at Sam and Tucker.

Sam and Tucker looked down, "Yeah…" Tucker nodded. "We were there when it happened." Sam continued, then she pulled out her phone, "Maybe he'll answer…" she dialed him, waiting a long time before she heard his voice. However, she didn't listen, "Danny! Are you okay? Where are you-" she paused.

 _"…Leave a message and I'll get back to you…"_ the voicemail finished before leaving Sam with a dial tone.

Sam shook her head and dialed again, however this time, the ring back tone trilled twice before sending her to voicemail again. She sighed in frustration, "He hung up on me."

Maddie grabbed her head and began pacing, "I don't understand… why didn't he tell us?"

This aggravated Sam, "Why _didn't_ he?" she asked, "Have you two _listened_ to yourselves?" she asked, "With you two _obsessing_ over capturing the _Ghost Boy_ and discussing dissecting him? With him watching you test out your new weapons and gadgets that would hurt a ghost as much as possible?" Sam reminded them, "Even _teaching_ him how to use them?" she asked. "Why _should_ he tell you?" she snapped.

Jack and Maddie flinched at the venom in the goth's tone. Maddie sighed and shook her head, pacing back and forth again, "Let me try calling him." She said and dialed him through her phone. She held the phone up to her ear and listened.

Outside of the city, sitting on a small dock along Lake Erie, Danny stared at his reflection in fear, having difficulty seeing out of his left eye and making out any sounds in his left ear. He closed his eyes and silently took in the quiet scenery. The full moon reflected off the lake, the tall trees tracing a dark halo around the water. The cool water seeped through the teen's boots and soaked his feet. He wiped blood off the side of his head again, stinging the raw, burned skin that covered an elliptic area from his jaw bone to his temple, and from his cheek bone to the backside of his ear. Blood was already crusting in the folds of his ear. His side throbbed with the burn from the initial hit from Jack. That particular injury didn't bother him as much as the one on his head did, considering it wasn't bleeding as much.

He sighed, with everything that he did, his parents discovering his ghost powers seemed to scare him more than anything. At times, he appeared to be scarier than a few of the lesser, weaker ghosts that he encountered. He didn't even _have_ to fight the Box Ghost anymore, just intimidate him back into the portal. Poindexter didn't even fight this year, he was just coaxed into the thermos.

The thermos…

Danny reached to his side where he still had the thermos attached. He looked at the can for a long time before taking the cap off and aiming the open end away from him, hitting the release switch. He braced himself for the recoil as every ghost he captured that night all burst out of the thermos. Without looking back, they all few off, except for Poindexter. He turned around and gave Danny a somewhat concerned look. He hovered in front of him, "Why?" he asked.

"I'm not going home… there's no point." He said, "Just go, get out of here." He waved him away.

Poindexter sunk and flew off, leaving Danny alone once more. The Ghost Boy tossed the thermos into the lake after everything had grown quiet. He looked up at the sky, seeing the streaks of each of the ghosts he had just released. Someone was sure to see that; a sudden burst of ghost lights coming from the woods near the lake. The sight was more peaceful than it seemed. They just looked like larger stars. Danny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His phone buzzed in his pocket, causing him to jump in surprise. He quickly fished his phone from his pocket and checked the caller ID. After reading that it was from his mother, he rejected the call and looked out to the lake. He looked back at his phone for a moment and stood up, his boots sopping wet and pouring excess water all over the deck. He brought back his arm and launched the cell phone into the lake, much farther than he threw the thermos. He took a deep breath and flew off again, even farther away from home than he already was before.

There were three dial notes, _"We're sorry, the number you are trying to reach is not in service. Please check the number or try your call again."_

Maddie froze, then looked at Sam and Tucker, "Would he smash his phone?"

Jack began shaking, "W-we need to find him." He said and started toward the van. Maddie followed close behind. They sat in the van, Jack cursing and slamming his fist on the steering wheel, "I'm such an idiot!" he growled at himself.

"Jack, calm down." Maddie tried soothing the large man.

"I can't calm down, Maddie, I _shot_ him. Don't you understand? We were both shooting at our own _son_." He snapped, "I hit him twice." He breathed heavily, "Our son is hurt because of our stupid obsession of ghosts!" he started the van and started driving.

"Jack stop!" Maddie shrieked, catching a glimpse of Sam jumping in front of the van.

Jack slammed on the brakes and growled, "Fine, you and Tucker get in the back. We'll _all_ find him." Jack harshly.

"It's not that!" Sam ran to Jacks window. "There's no point in driving after him, he's probably long gone by now." She panted in fear and exhaustion. "He can fly faster than a hundred miles an hour, and considering he doesn't have to take any twists or turns, he might even be out of town."

"Damn it!" Jack barked and slammed his fists on the steering wheel, "Do you know of anything in that direction that he'd go to?"

Sam shook her head, Tucker finally catching up to her after having a small heart attack. If Danny ever did come back, it probably won't be for long if he hears that Sam was hit and killed by his parents' van.

"My best bet would be at Vlad Masters'. But he and Danny don't exactly get along. I'd be amazed if he goes there. Anyplace else would be the Ghost Zone." Sam finished.

Maddie immediately retrieved her phone again, dialing Vlad.

 _"Maddie! What makes you call at this late hour?"_ Vlad answered somewhat cheerfully.

"Cut the crap, Vlad. We have a problem."

Vlad had completely changed his tone, "Well, that was quite bitter. What's the problem?" he asked, sitting in his living room with his cat curled up against his leg.

"We found out that Danny is half-ghost. Now he's flown off and we have no idea where he's gone. Is he with you?"

Vlad leaned forward, "N-no, he isn't. Is there anywhere down there where he'd go?"

"Not that we can think of, except for the Ghost Zone, or so Samantha says. Can you just- keep an eye out for him, please? He's hurt and we're really worried about him."

Vlad nodded, "Y-yes…" he said, "If he does come here, I'll take care of him and let you know."

"Thank you so much…" Maddie sighed in relief.

"If he doesn't turn up within the next few hours, I'll search for him, alright?"

"That sounds good, thank you." She said and hung up. "Vlad said he'll keep an eye out for him."

"Vlad's a ghost too." Tucker blurted out, "Honestly, I don't really know how well that'll play out for us." He explained.

Maddie took a deep breath, "Would he come back for his graduation tomorrow?" she asked.

"I wouldn't count on it." Sam shook her head, "He's… I've never seen him take off like this…"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence until Jack spoke, "You two said you were there when it happened… you mean when Danny became half -ghost? When? What happened?"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, unsure how to put the fact that it was their own equipment that could have killed Danny, but only gave him powers.

"Jack, let's not talk about this out here. Let's at least go home and sit them down." Maddie said.

Jack took this into consideration, but she was right. He sighed, "Get in the van." He said quietly. With a short, quiet, and tense drive, they all found themselves sitting in the large living room. Jack repeated his question, "What happened?" he asked.

Sam took a deep breath, "Danny wanted to show us your lab." She started, "After showing us all of the weapons and equipment, he finally got to the ghost portal and told us that it wasn't working." She said, "He… he was really interested in it and thought maybe he could figure out why it wasn't running. So he put on the jumpsuit you guys had made for him and went into the portal."

"He found a switch and saw that it was off. After telling us that he figured it out, he hit the switch and the entire thing just lit up. We heard him screaming. We wanted to go in after him, but it was going to electrocute us too. We found a way to turn it off from the outside and pulled him out… but…" Tucker looked down, "It- it didn't look like him anymore. His hair turned white, his eyes turned green, his skin was… paler than it was before, and the jumpsuit completely inverted its color." He explained.

"We thought he was dead." Sam continued, "We waited for a while for him to wake up, we even tried waking him up ourselves. But…" she shook her head, "His skin was cold, he was barely breathing, but his heart was pounding." She said, "He woke up screaming. Freaking out that he thought he was going to die. He was almost crying when he realized that he was still alive. He didn't even _know_ what he looked like now." She explained, "We had to take him to a mirror, and then he was having a panic attack. We didn't know how to explain it to you guys. Suddenly he had white hair and green eyes and was… a ghost. He decided not to tell you guys out of fear. He didn't want you guys treating him like every other ghost you've met. But then he found a way to change back to his human form and tried playing it off."

"That's why he spent the night at my place on a school night…" Tucker confessed. "We were still trying to calm him down."

"We got him to figure out how to control changing back and forth between ghost and human forms." Sam said, "We helped him learn how to control his powers. And we helped him hunt ghosts." She managed a brief smile, "Which was why we were out tonight." She sighed, "Danny didn't want there to be any ghost attacks during graduation. He's been trying to protect Amity Park for four years. We've been helping him train, too."

"Danny's a hero." Tucker said. "If it weren't for him, the city would be destroyed. Or even overrun by Pariah Dark." He continued, "The city _needs_ him." He looked down, then looked at Sam. "And who knows if he's coming back…"

Further down Danny's flight path, Danny found himself sinking lower to the ground out of exhaustion. He planted his feet on the ground before changing forms, more tired than he had realized. He took a deep breath and continued walking. He shut his left eye to avoid any blood leading into it. Despite how much he wiped it away, it still bled. His focus shifted to the injury above his left hip. He took a deep breath and tripped, accidentally kicking his own heel. After crashing onto the ground, he laid silently, actually finding the rocky ground comfortable. A wave of fatigue washed over him and allowed him to close his eyes and rest there.

**So, this is the first installment, chapter thingy for this story. I know it's long, but I hope everyone enjoyed this. It took me a couple weeks to write down, but this past week and the week before was very interrupted. I won't have consistent updates, I will honest. Some may be just a few days within each other, others might even be a week or two apart. But let me know, leave a review telling me what you think, okay? Stay awesome folks!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Wilderness

On the hilly, gravelly terrain, Danny laid on the ground. Six clustered shadows hovered over him and knelt by him.

"Is he dead?" one voice said.

"I don't think so." Another replied.

"No, he's alive." The owner of the voice pat Danny's shoulder, "Hey, you okay?"

"James, does he look okay?" a harsher voice snapped, "He'll die anyways, just leave him."

"Carson!" a woman's voice snapped.

Danny's eyebrows pulled together as he groaned. He ringing in his left ear remained, leaving him hard of hearing in one side.

"He moved!" a final voice called.

The group's attention turned back to Danny, who was starting to move around. He took a deep breath and pushed himself to his hands and knees.

"Hey, are you alright?" the owner of the third voice asked. He leaned over to try and look Danny in the eye, his 'good' eye at least. "What happened to you?"

Danny sat back and looked over at the concerned young man, finding that he was about the same age as himself. He then tried opening his left eye and found it practically glued shut with crusted blood and eye goop. He took a deep breath, "Um…" he rubbed his head, flinching after forgetting about the injury by his ear.

One of the older men kneeling by the young man sighed, "We should get you cleaned up."

"Kurtis, do you think we can clean him up with anything out here?" the harsh voice snapped. He stood toward the back of the group, behind a pair of twins, Kurtis, and the teen. "Need I remind you that we don't have another water source for about three or four miles?"

"Well, I'm sure we can spare a water bottle until then." Kurtis turned to the man, "Carson, be a little rational about this."

The older man rolled his eyes and growled, "Fine. Clean him up, and he can tag along. Just as long as he has his own food and water."

Danny watched the group in confusion, "What's going on?" was all he could croak, his throat was drier than he thought.

"Uh…" the teen chuckled nervously, "Don't mind him, he's kinda crabby." He said with a low tone so Carson wouldn't hear. The woman beside him smiled and giggled quietly. "Let's get you taken care of." He took a massive backpack off of his back and set it down, pulling out a rag and a water bottle. He soaked the rag and handed it to the woman beside him, "Here, Mom." He said.

The mother smiled and started cleaning off the blood and dirt from the side of Danny's head, "Hold still…" she said.

Danny tensed up, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with someone he doesn't even know cleaning him up. He picked up a hand to move hers away, but considered letting her continue. He knew there probably wasn't a mirror in a few miles and he himself didn't have a rag to do it.

"What's your name?" the woman asked.

"Danny." He said.

She nodded, "Well, I'm Evangeline, and this is my son, James." She pointed at the teen beside her. "The man arguing with the group leader is my husband

Kurtis, and the group leader is Carson." She said.

"And the twins are Corey and Geronimo." James added.

Danny nodded.

"What are you doing out here? Are you hiking?"

He then shook his head, "No… it's a long story."

James glanced at the rest of the group, "It's not like we're in any hurry for anything. We're hiking, so there'll be plenty of time to explain." He said.

"It's not that- I just…" Danny thought for a while, "I really don't want to talk about it." He sighed.

James paused, "Oh… okay then."

Evangeline began wiping off the blood off of Danny's eye, "Let's see if we can get you to open that eye…" she began picking the crusts off his eyelashes, causing him to flinch and back away slightly.

"Ow!" Danny growled, his skin stinging from having the crusts peeled off.

"Sorry." Evangeline whispered and dabbed Danny's eye with the wet cloth again, "How long have you been out here?" she asked. "You must've been out here a long time if you're not bleeding anymore and the blood is this dry." She noted.

"Since last night." Danny said, brushing the rag away and clearing the crusts away himself, "Honestly, I don't want to talk about why I was bleeding, either."

He sighed and finally tried opening his eye. He blinked several times, trying to readjust to the sudden light. When the vision in that eye finally came into focus, he only saw slightly blurred figures of James and Evangeline. He squinted and rubbed his eye again, feeling some gunk built up in his eyelids, "Uh... conflict with my folks."

"I see..." Evangeline sat back and confirmed condescendingly, "Wait- they did this to you!?" she asked in horror. "God- you'd be lucky to hear out of that ear again!"

"Uh- it's complicated! It wasn't their fault!" Danny threw his hands up in defense, "It's a long story."

Kurtis sat next to them, "Managed to convince Carson to hold his horses for a while. We're taking a break, so we'll have time to take care of you, kiddo."

Evangeline frowned, responding to what Danny had said, "I swear, if your parents did this on purpose-"

"I'm fine, Evangeline..." Danny reassured her. "Th-thanks for the concern though..."

"What's going on?" Kurtis asked.

"Danny said he had a conflict with his parents." Evangeline pulled a few protein bars out of her bag, "Here." she handed one to Danny.

Danny took it reluctantly, regretting having said anything. "Thank you." he said.

"Any time, sweet pea." she smiled. "And just call me Evie." she smiled.

"So, Danny, where're you from?" James piped up, "Not too far from here, I imagine."

"Yeah, I'm from Amity Park, Michigan." He answered, "And you guys?" he asked.

"Uh- we're from Mesa, Arizona." Kurtis answered, "Carson said he's from somewhere in Utah. And the twins are from Sacramento, California." he said, "But we started this hike in Oregon."

"Oregon?" Danny asked.

"Lie down." Evangeline commanded, having already finished her bar.

Danny did as she said and tore open the wrapper to the bar he was given, "So... you guys have been surviving out here for... how long?"

Kurtis thought for a moment, "Lost track." He said, "I've always been bad with dates."

"Few weeks." James answered, "Close to a month, actually."

"Three and a half weeks." Evangeline confirmed, "And we're almost there." She added, lifting Danny's shirt and cleaning his side, "Once we get there, we're supposed to all check out a hotel and have dinner to celebrate." she explained, "Then we go home."

"That's it?" Danny asked, "Then why Amity Park?"

"It's on the trail." James said, "We heard it's haunted. Is it?" he asked, seeming excited for some reason.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Danny rolled his eyes. "Ghost attacks happen all the time. I'm surprised we get as many tourists as we do."

"Wow." Evangeline looked at Kurtis nervously, "How do you live there?"

"We have a lot of ghost hunters in the area. My family specializes in it." he answered.

"Oh, well, that's kinda cool." James smiled. "So you've met ghosts?"

"Plenty." Danny said.

"Time's up!" Carson announced, "Time to keep moving!" he stood and had his bag on his back, "New kid, you're stuck with us until we get to Amity Park, then we're taking you to the police."

"Aw, come on, Car, can't you cut the guy some slack?" One of the twins asked, Danny noted that this twin- Geronimo, was the one with the freckles and the red backpack. "He was pretty messed up when we found him."

"Yeah, we gotta go easy on him." Corey, the other twin agreed. This twin had slightly longer hair and a green backpack.

Carson rolled his eyes and continued walking.

Corey shook his head, "Is he gonna be okay, Evie?"

"I'll be fine." Danny answered for her, taking Corey's offered hand. Evangeline had already patched up his side and put a bandage over Danny's left ear. He had also finished he protein bar and was ready to move along with everyone. Then he paused, "Amity Park..." his heart jumped, his body running cold and his breath hitching. He finally noticed that his ghost sense had been going the entire time. He was shocked that no one mentioned it, or even _noticed_.

"Something wrong, dude?" James asked.

"Amity Park..." he took half a step back, "I can't go home." he shook his head.

James took a moment to see the panic building in Danny's face, "Hey- we'll catch up." He called out, "I'm gonna talk to Danny for a minute."

"Be safe, baby!" Evangeline waved.

"Make it quick!" Carson snapped, "I'm legally responsible for you, not him."

"They'll be fine, Carson." Kurtis reassured him, "James is a capable kid. He punched that bear in the face, remember?"

As the group got farther away, all they could hear was Carson's annoyed grumbling. James rolled his hazel eyes and turned back to look at Danny, "He's..." he tired thinking of a way of putting it, but then he abandoned the idea, "I don't know..." he shook his head, "Anyway. You don't want to go home?" he asked, "Is it because of your folks?"

Danny nodded, "They... they found something out about me... and it goes against what they believe in... And now I'm terrified to face them again." he explained and wrung his hands.

"What'd they find out?" James asked, "You gay or something" He asked, but then felt the question was a little too personal. So before Danny could speak, he waved his hands, "No- don't answer that. Anyway- if they love you as much as they've always said, even before... whatever it is." he waved his hands again, "Then they'll accept you no matter what." he said. "I can speak from experience. I came out to my parents and they were shocked. But... they still love me. I'm still part of the family." he smiled.

"And what if they don't accept me and instead they reject me?" Danny asked unsure.

"Then come find me and my mom and dad. We'll take you in."

Danny chuckled, "And go to Arizona with you guys?"

"Actually, we were planning on staying in this part of the country." James shook his head. "We'll be close-ish enough by." he smiled, "That is assuming that you don't have anyone else to go to."

"A couple friends." Danny answered, then he gasped, "Oh no, Sam and Tucker!" he grabbed the sides of his head, "They must be worried sick!" he groaned, "God, I'm such a shitty friend."

"Oh..." James looked down. "Know what, Danny? Come walk with us. We've got a week. You have until we make it to Amity Park to make a decision." He said, "Plenty of time to think it over. Plus, I'm sure your friends would love to make sure you're okay." he smiled.

Danny thought about it for a moment, staring at the ground and imagining the possible reactions his parents would have. He didn't even stick around long enough to find out what they would do. He took a deep breath, thinking maybe James was right. _Maybe_. He took a deep breath, "Okay." he exhaled, "I'll... I'll think about it..." he agreed.

James smiled wider, "Great!" he pat Danny's shoulder, "Granted- either way, I wouldn't have the heart to leave you alone out here without any food, water or anything to defend yourself from bears and shit." he started walking.

"Yeah- I was going to ask about that- you punched a _bear_ in the _face_?!" he asked. "That's..." he shook his head, "What?!"

"It had my mom backed into a corner! What else was I supposed to do?" James shrugged, seeming too casual about the event.

Danny shook his head, "Okay- okay, never mind..." he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, if I'm coming with you- I think I heard Carson mention something about having my own food and water-"

"Oh, we're going to be hitting one of our checkpoints." he said, "Restock on food, water, first aid crap, all that stuff. We'll help you cover whatever you need."

"Uh- thanks. But... I actually still have some money on me, I'll get what I can-"

"How much?"

"Twenty bucks?"

"Oh, man- that won't be enough." James cringed.

"Really?" Danny rose an eyebrow.

"Trust me, you're gonna need stuff to last us a week." he pat Danny's back and kept walking back to the group, "Oh- and how are you doing business in the wilderness?"

"Like...?" Danny asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Ever shit in the woods before?" James asked smugly.

"Jasmine! You _knew_ about this!?"

Jazz flinched, "Well- yeah." she shrugged sheepishly, "I promised him I wouldn't tell." She confessed, "In fact, he didn't even _know_ I knew at first. I wanted him to feel comfortable telling me first." She admitted, "He was... he was just too scared to tell you guys."

Jack and Maddie watched their daughter in silence. Maddie paced back and forth, desperately fighting back tears. Jack rubbed his forehead, "And you don't have _any_ idea as to where he would be?" he asked. "Where he would go?"

"I don't know, he'd either go to Vlad's or the Ghost Zone. If he doesn't go to Sam or Tucker's first."

"And he's not at any of those places." Jack sighed, "Well- we actually haven't checked _all_ of the Ghost Zone..."

"Here's an idea." Sam piped in, "Last time Danny disappeared on us, we used the Boo-merang to find him."

Jazz nodded, "Yeah, it works great." she nodded, "Why don't we try that?"

Jack and Maddie looked at each other. Jack took a deep breath, "Okay." he started for the basement.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tucker jumped forward, stopping Jack in his tracks, "Mr. Fenton, you and I will follow the Boo-merang." He suggested, "Mrs. Fenton, you, Sam and Jazz stay here in case Danny comes back here."

"No- I want to go looking for Danny too." Maddie insisted and stepped forward.

"No- Tucker's right." Jazz stood up, standing between her mother and Tucker. "If Danny _does_ decide to come back on his own, you'd miss him. If you both happen to find him, then it'll freak him out and overwhelm him. He might run off again and lose our chances of finding him again. It'll be better to let just one of you guys see him at a time. Dad, it'll be good for Tucker to go with you, that way he _knows_ he can trust at least one of you."

Jack looked down feeling hurt at the thought of not having his own son's trust, he sighed and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"And we'll call everyone we know." Sam said, "I've got some connections."

"Plus, there were some kids from school that might keep an eye out for him." Tucker added.

"I already called Vlad Masters." Maddie crossed her arms, "He's out looking for him now." She took a deep breath, wiping her eye once again. "You kids..." she sighed, "You kids know him better than anyone else at this point. I trust you." she said.

"I'll go get the Boo-merang programmed." Jack started down for the basement, "Tucker, come with me."

Maddie leaned against the wall after Jack and Tucker left, thinking for a while. "So... all those times he's come home with those cuts and bruises... it wasn't a fight at school..." she concluded, "It was never a fight at school..." she sighed.

" _Most_ of the time they weren't." Sam corrected her.

Maddie's eyes moved up toward Sam.

Sam looked down awkwardly, "Probably not very reassuring, but..."

Maddie closed her eyes and sighed heavily. She moved toward Sam and wrapped her up in a hug, "Thank you for taking care of him." she whispered, then she looked up at Jazz, "Come here, Baby..." she held out an arm.

Jazz joined the group hug.

"And thank you for being such a good sister for him." Maddie smiled, her eyes watering.

"We did what we could." Jazz said.

"Between ghost hunting and home work, we tried to help him get it all done." Sam said.

"So..." Maddie backed away and chuckled, "That explains his grades." she wiped her eyes.

"And the lack of sleep he's been getting." Jazz nodded.

"His behavior..." Maddie sighed, "There's a lot I have to apologize for..." she breathed.

"Me too." Jack agreed as he walked back into the room, Tucker close behind him. "It's ready." Jack said, "And the Specter Speeder is too." In his hand, he held the Boo-merang, the light in the middle of the bend blinked very slowly and as the light pulsed, the device beeped.

Tucker took the Boo-merang and showed everyone the blinking light, "The speed of the light will blink depending on how close he is." Tucker informed, "The light's really slow, so he's pretty far away. Whether that be here, or in the Ghost Zone." he explained, "Since it's synched up with one of the tablets, it'll track him down via GPS." he stared at it for while, "So... are we ready to send it off?"

The five piled into the basement and stood in front of the portal, Boo-merang in Jack's hand. He took a deep breath and looked back at Tucker for confirmation. After earning a nod, he wound up an arm, "Help us bring him back..." he whispered and threw the Boo-merang as hard as he could into the portal. Tucker watched the screen for a while, "Wait- it's coming back..." Tucker looked back at the portal, "Everyone, move!" he barked, shoving Sam out of the way. Jack grabbed Jazz and Maddie as he jumped out of the way of the Boo-merang flying out of the portal and right passed them.

Tucker scrambled to his feet and followed the Boo-merang upstairs, watching it loop around the living room and head for the front door. Before it could hit the door, Tucker flung the door open. He exhaled a breath of relief. The others ran up and met with him. Jack ran to the driveway and started up the Fenton Assault Vehicle. "Tucker, let's go!"

Tucker ran to the vehicle and jumped into the passenger seat.

"Be safe, you guys!" Jazz called behind them.

Jack and Tucker drove off before they responded, leaving only a trail of dust and tire marks on the pavement.

"How close is he?" Jack asked, maneuvering through traffic.

"It's still beeping really slowly, so... really far away. Definitely out of town, and maybe even out of state." Tucker said.

"I just hope he's okay." Jack murmured.

Danny thanked the cashier at the souvenir shop and strapped his cheap sports bag full of protein bars, first-aid, toilet paper and water over his shoulder. He stepped outside and met with the rest of the group. James sat with his parents and chatted innocently, Geronimo and Corey were still wandering around inside the shop looking for little trinkets to take home. Carson was off to the side of the shop having a cigarette. Danny sheepishly sat beside James.

"Got what you need? Kurtis asked.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, I think so." he rested his arms on the table, "Food, water, first aid and toilet paper." he listed off.

"Carson's gonna finish his cigarette and we'll be on our way." Evangeline informed him.

"Okay." Danny nodded.

"Wait- did you grab a blanket?" James asked.

"Shit-" Danny swore under his breath, "Should I?"

"Run. Carson's almost done." James urged.

Danny jumped back up and ran back inside, finding the first, cheapest blanket that he could find and purchased it for barely less than ten dollars. He trotted back outside and plopped back down next to James. He rolled up the blanket and shoved it into the sports bag as best as he could. By the time he was done, the bag was bulging. As he studied the bag for a moment, it occurred to him that he probably should have taken everything out first and _then_ try shoving the blanket into the bag, but from his peripheral, he noticed that Carson was making his way back to the group.

"Aright time to-" he froze and looked at Danny, who looked up at him wide-eyed and was still wrestling with his bag. "O-kay..." he looked back to the rest of the group, "Let's get moving, we're losing daylight." he commanded. He glared at Danny and James before starting back on the trail.

James and Danny were the last two to get up and follow. James had sunk and kept his head lowered as he walked by Carson.

Danny glanced over and noticed how James had submitted. Seeing also that he'd grabbed his stomach out of discomfort, "You okay, dude?" he asked.

"Yeah." James nodded, "My stomach's just a little upset." he said, "It's been a little upset since before we stopped at the shop." he said.

Evangeline looked back at her son in concern, "So, Danny, you said your parents are ghost hunters?" she asked, she seemed somewhat uncomfortable. "Are they any good?"

"Yes and no." Danny sank with his answer. "My Dad's a terrible shot. My Mom is a better shot, but together as a team..." he shrugged, "I dunno." He sighed, "Another ghost hunter said that they couldn't catch a ghost if it lived in their own home."

"Wow." Kurtis chuckled. After earning a elbow to his ribs from his wife, he cleared his throat, "Um... Sorry to hear."

"No, it's okay." Danny waved his hand, "I've gotten used to it." he said. "They're not really wrong, either."

"In what sense?" Carson asked suspiciously.

Danny felt Carson eyeing daggers at him, "Uh- they're _really_ bad ghost hunters." he clarified uncomfortably. "Their inventions aren't too bad though. So I can't say they're not good in the business." he said.

"That's cool." Corey smiled, "So any stories? It'll pass the time." he asked.

"No stories." Carson said bitterly.

Geronimo glared at Carson for a moment, "Why not?"

Carson stopped in his tracks and glared at the freckled twin. Such a glared made him freeze, but Geronimo quickly pushed the fear aside, "We've _all_ been sharing stories. Of course- except for you. What's wrong, don't have anything worth telling?" Geronimo taunted.

Danny tensed up, barely noticing that James had taken a small step back, shuffling the gravel beneath his feet.

Carson quickly advanced on Geronimo, "That's because-"

"That's enough!" Kurtis snarled, stepping between the two, "Geronimo, don't antagonize Carson." he commanded, using his 'Dad' voice, "Carson, Danny's part of the group now, you're going to have to learn to treat him like one until we get to Amity Park." he scolded the older man.

Carson's eyes blazed in rage at Kurtis. Then he straightened up, "Ghosts are just figments of the imaginations of people who can't come to grips that their friend or family member is dead." he stated harshly, "They don't exist." he said flatly.

Danny frowned and bit his lip, feeling insulted for the first time since Dash moved out of state. "Ghosts exist, I've seen them myself." he argued, "They've attacked my parents, my friends, me... and _everyone_ in my town." he said firmly.

Carson popped his jaw and turned to Danny and grabbed him by the collar, very quickly making a circle of space around the two, "Then you're just as delusional and paranoid as everyone else." he growled. His face was close enough to Danny's to where Danny could smell his breath. And though Carson's teeth seemed to be in decent condition for a smoker, his breath smelled like death, decay and nicotine.

"Carson. That is _enough_." Kurtis pulled on his shoulder to let him release Danny.

Carson huffed and started walking again.

Danny took a deep breath and took a moment to cool down.

"You okay, Danny?" Evangeline asked Danny in concern, "I know he can be irritable, but this is a little excessive."

"I'm fine." Danny breathed.

"James, how about you?" she asked, looking back at her son.

Danny turned around to look at James, who kept one hand pressed to his stomach and the other rested on a tree. James took a deep breath through his nose and let it out through his mouth, "Yeah..." he exhaled, "My- uh..." he swallowed hard, "My stomach's acting up again."

Evangeline looked at him in concern, "You guys go on ahead," She looked at Danny and Kurtis. "I'll stay here with James. We'll catch up."

Danny and Kurtis looked at each other for a moment, then started toward the rest of the group. "Again?" Danny asked Kurtis for clarification.

"Uh... James caught some sort of stomach bug when we started hiking. Normally he's got a stomach of steel and would eat anything. But now it's gotten to the point where anyone even _argues_ with anyone, he gets nauseous." Kurtis explained. "He's been throwing up off and on."

Corey turned to look at Danny and Kurtis, "Is James okay?"

"His stomach." Kurtis said in a low tone.

Unfortunately Carson overheard, "Jesus, _again_?!" Carson asked, enraged. "Do we have to stop _every_ damn time his stomach starts acting up?"

"Well, he's been sick." Geronimo pointed out, "It's-"

"He should've thought about that before he went hiking." Carson grumbled.

"He got sick _while_ we were hiking." Kurtis corrected, "It's not his fault." he growled.

"Carson!" Evangeline's voice called out, "Carson, James' wound started bleeding again, we have to rest for the night." she came walking closer to the group with James pulled over her shoulder, a hand pressed to his back over his left hip.

It hadn't occurred to Danny, but it was getting dark. Not too dark. He quickly regained control of his train of thought and wondered what happened.

Carson took a deep breath, "Fine." he dropped his bag, "Geronimo, start a campfire. Corey, go around and make sure there's nothing out there to attack us."

"Yes, sir." The twins responded simultaneously.

Kurtis rushed over and helped Evangeline lay James down and get him comfortable. Danny looked around, feeling awkward, "Is... Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"Go look out with Corey." Carson answered sharply.

Danny nodded and went looking for the long-haired twin, "Corey?" he called out, exhaling a breath of mist. He took a deep breath and closed his mouth, exhaling through his nose. He nursed his side and walked around carefully, being wary of the area. He took a moment to snap his fingers near his left ear to check his hearing. Finding that it was still muffled, but the ringing had gone away. The vision in his left eye was still sort of blurry, but just enough that it gave him a headache and he had a hard time keeping his balance. "Corey!" he called out again, having made a full lap around the area. Something didn't settle right with him. Everything was too eerie. He knew there was a ghost nearby, but there was more to the atmosphere than just that. Whatever the feeling was, it made his stomach twist in a way that he felt nauseous. There were still no signs of Corey. "Corey!" He called louder.

"Over here!" Corey's voice echoed at him.

Danny turned in response, realizing that Corey had returned to the campsite. He nodded and started walking back. He took a deep breath and wished he knew what time it was. As he exhaled, he saw his breath again. Pressing his lips closed, he decided that he was going to have to be very careful considering it was much easier to see his breath at night. He hoped Sam and Tucker were okay. He knew he just left without any warning. The last time he talked to them was when he was getting shot at, before he was hit on the head and knocked out of the air. He sighed and stopped walking for a moment, realizing that they were probably graduating right now. He promised that he was going to walk with them and he screwed it up. His stomach twisted harder out of guilt. He made it back to the campsite and kicked a few rocks around, clearing a spot for himself to lie down. After that, he forced his blanket out of his bag and laid it out. He looked over and saw that Carson had already fallen asleep. The twins were sitting by the fire, and James' parents were eating and talking amongst themselves. Danny took a deep breath and laid down on his blanket, finding himself surprisingly comfortable.

"Might want to cover up." A groggy voice recommended, catching Danny's attention. "It gets cold out here."

Danny propped up on his elbow, "How are you feeling? I know your stomach was upset and your injury started bleeding." He asked, exhaling another puff of mist. He quickly closed his mouth and pressed his lips shut.

James managed a tired smile, fortunately his eyes were closed and the others didn't see, "I'm good. I've had worse." he reassured him. "I'm just tired." He laid on his side, one arm was tucked under his head and his hair had been let down, leaving some stands hanging in his face. He seemed paler in comparison to normal.

Danny nodded, "If you say so." he said, being careful about his breath. He laid back down and pulled part of the blanket over himself. He had fallen asleep in no time, not realizing how tired he really was.

"-And then there was that time we time travelled..." Tucker listed off, explaining all of the misadventures he had with Danny and Sam.

"Time travelled?" Jack rose an eyebrow, "How'd you do that?" he asked.

"This time ghost named Clockwork." Tucker replied, watching the tablet on his lap as the radar followed the Boo-merang that was tracking Danny. The beeping didn't seem to speed up, so they were still pretty far away. "We went to the future, he went to the past," he continued, "I think he screwed something up..." He muttered under his breath, "We've also been to Ancient Egypt, Rome..."

"That explains how he managed to pass _those_ parts of his history classes." Jack hummed, completely missing that Tucker had mention that Danny may have messed something up when he went to the past.

Tucker's phone vibrated, causing him to jump "Didn't think we'd have service out here."

"Good thing." Jack commented.

Tucker checked his phone, then sank. Sam had messaged him, _"Any luck?"_

Tucker sighed and texted her back, " _No,_ _he's still too far away."_

"Who was that?" Jack asked, "Did they find Danny?"

"No." Tucker shook his head, "Sam was asking if we'd found him yet."

Jack sank and forced his focus on staying on the road. He didn't realize it, but it had been a couple hours that passed before a cell phone began ringing and the Techno-Geek jumped. Apparently he was asleep.

"Sam! What's wrong?" Tucker asked in a groggy panicked tone.

 _"You asshole! I just got back from graduation that I walked by_ myself _!"_ Sam's hysteric voice sobbed on the phone, _"I'm going to slap both of you when you get back!"_ she threatened, _"You guys owe be_ big _time for this!"_

Tucker cringed. He knew he was forgetting something important. He didn't realize it was _this_ important. So not only did Danny break his promise to Sam, _Tucker_ broke Danny's promise to Sam. "Oh God, Sam... I'm so sorry..." He rubbed his face. "We'll, uh..." He thought for a moment, "We'll do something cool when we get back, okay?" He offered, "I promise."

 _"You better not break this one, too."_ she sniffled, _"And you guys had better be safe out there, too."_ she hissed, _"If you guys get hurt or something-"_

"Sam, I'm only worried about Danny right now." he cut her off, "We'll be okay." he reassured her.

Sam sat in her room, three high school diplomas sat on her bed, one of the trio's names on each. "You better." she scolded, her makeup ran down her face from tears, her face reddened with anger and worry. "I love you guys." she whispered, using the only possible way to speak without her voice breaking.

 _"We love you too, Sam. We'll call as soon as we find him."_ Tucker informed her before hanging up.

Sam dropped her phone on her bed and curled up, bringing her knees to her chest and holding her head as she sobbed. She hoped that Danny was okay. She saw the injuries he had when he left, and who knew how serious the one on his head was.

She felt the bed shake for a moment, indicating that her cat had hopped up. The cat approached her, his tail in the air and his ears perked forward, though one twitched and faced backwards at the sound of her cries. He chirped and made faint grunting noises as he approached her, sniffing at her face. Then he paused and meowed.

Sam smiled, "Hey, handsome." she sniffled and scratched the back of his head, "I'll be okay." she exhaled. "Daddy got stupid and flew off." she explained to him.

The cat purred and bumped his head against her face, getting a small touch of foundation on his forehead. He meowed again.

Sam remembered when she got the cat as a kitten. When she, Danny and Tucker were out wrapping up ghost hunting, Danny had disappeared for a short while. Sam had called and called him, trying to see if he was okay. After the fifth call, Danny stood behind them and apologized, "Sorry, this little guy was almost caught in the crossfire." he explained, holding a small, black and white tuxedo kitten in his arms.

It had taken everything in Sam's power not to squeal in how adorable this kitten was, trying to keep her 'tough girl' act in front of her boyfriend and Tucker. "Where did you find it?" she asked instead of squealing.

"He was up on a roof. I almost accidentally shot at him trying to hit Skulker." Danny had explained, "I can't take him, my parents won't allow pets."

Tucker chuckled, "He kinda looks like you, Danny." he grinned, "Hey, if you change back while holding him, would her turn white with black paws?"

Danny let out a devious laugh, "I doubt it."

Sam rolled her eyes, "No, you idiots, you'll only scare him away." she took the kitten and cradled him in her arms. "I'll Take him- my folks won't care."

"That'd be awesome though, he'd be our Little Danny." Tucker teased.

"Nah." Danny shook his head, "Only _one_ 'Danny' in this group, please."

Tucker sank at the name's rejection.

"How about Tux?" Danny offered.

"Nah, man, that's too easy!" Tucker waved his hand.

The kitten purred loudly in Sam's arms, leaning his head into her hand as she scratched behind his ears. "Maybe Phantom?"

"But _I'm_ Phantom!" Danny protested.

They went through too many names, like Phantom, Tux, Little Danny, Spooky, Socks, Greenie (his eyes were as bright green as Danny's at the time), Emerald, Jasper, Kuro, Neko, Kuro Neko, Sony, Umbra, Charles, Limo...

"Supernova?" Danny suggested, having changed back to his human form as the three now sat on the bench. Even the kitten had fallen asleep.

Sam thought for a moment, "Or... Maybe just Nova?" she asked.

"I like Nova." Tucker agreed.

"Finally!" Danny shot his fists up into the air, "We found a name for him."

Sam laid in bed, Nova now curled up against her stomach and purred loudly, not necessarily asleep, but fully enjoying the affection he was being given. She smiled at the memory. Even though Sam had the cat living with her, he was still partially Danny's. Whenever Danny came over, Nova's attention was strictly on Danny and begging him for attention. Often the cat would jump onto Danny's lap and get in his face while he tried playing video games with Sam and Tucker. Danny was dubbed the cat's father by Tucker after Sam was referred to as the cat's mother. Hence the fact Sam referred to Danny as Daddy to the cat.

Tucker teased them and called it practice for when they have a _real_ kid.

Sam always told him to shut up. But she knew he wasn't entirely wrong. Sam eventually fell asleep, praying that Danny would be okay and make it home safely.

**Holy cheese and bananas! Longest chapter update since Building Again from the Ground Up! I bullshitted half of this, so most of this is just filler crap! I hope this is enjoyable nonetheless. The cat part wasn't really planed, but Sam needed kitty therapy. This story is the only thing that's been on my mind lately, so hopefully it'll be a little more active. I hope you don't mind OC's because Danny's spending practically the rest of the story with them. Leave a review and let me know what you think, I took the suggestion from the last chapter when Lopsided Jellyfish said their concern was finding Danny with the Boo-merang, so I'll give credit for that one, so thank you. I have a plan, this isn't over yet. If any of you have read Hazel- James, Kurt, Evangeline, Geronimo, and Corey are all the same people. This is a different version of Hazel/James, though. Hazel/James is a recycled OC, and I use him _everywhere_. But they are the same people Uh... Again if you've read Hazel, then you'd know about James. But this I happy Hazel/James and he's not totally depressing/depressed in this story like his is in _every other story_ I've got him in. Enjoy and stay awesome, folks!**


	3. Chapter 3: Secrets

**AN: Bah, so I just double checked where Amity Park actually is, and apparently it's not actually in Michigan like I thought. I checked the Wikia and David Kaufman approximated that it's actually somewhere in Minnesota. I got my reference from Phantom Planet? Where it zoomed out of Amity Park and showed the rest of the country, and I felt like the city was somewhere along the western coast of Michigan near Lake Michigan. I apologize for screwing up any information for you guys, but for my own consistency's sake I'm going to leave it in Michigan because I know that's where I had it in other stories. Anyway, enjoy the rest of the chapter.**

Tucker struggled to keep his eyes open. He and Jack had been driving for six hours and the Boo-merang still hadn't reached Danny. But Tucker was reassured as the beeping was sped up to a nice pace of three beeps per second. He watched the number indication the distance drop from the five-hundreds, one hundreds, fifties, the distance closed itself to zero. Though the Boo-merang was completely out of sight, the screen flashed with the message, "Target Found" and the tablet rang out with a long, continuous beep.

"What does that mean?" Jack asked, not knowing his own device well enough to know what a certain sound meant.

"We found Danny!" Tucker exclaimed, studying the map for a moment, "It looks like he's in... the..." he pulled his eyebrows together, "The middle of Minnesota."

"Who the hell does he know that lives in Minnesota?" Jack asked.

Tucker scoffed, "I dunno, he's not even in any major cities, he's in the middle of nowhere."

Static rang from the tablet, making Tucker jump and flinch, almost throwing the tablet out the window, "What the?"

"What happened?"

Tucker watched the screen go from 'Target Found' to 'Signal Lost'. He sank, staring at the screen for a while.

"Tucker?" Jack called.

The signal was lost, Danny was in the middle of nowhere, and they still had a couple hours until they got to the spot that the Boo-merang had tracked him too. His teal eyes stared at the screen in horror.

"Tucker Foley, answer me!" Jack snapped.

"It's a lost signal." Tucker laughed in denial, "We lost him."

"Wait- lost signal, what-"

"Danny's alive, but he must've trashed the Boo-merang." Tucker added, "Like he _doesn't_ _want_ to be found."

"He'd do that?"

"He destroyed his phone, didn't he?" Tucker asked.

Jack sank. He pulled over and sat in shock. "Wh- What now?" he asked. "It's more than likely that he's flying..."

Tucker thought for a while, staring emotionlessly at the dashboard. His heart palpitated and his lungs tried forcing him to take a deep breath with the emotional pain that he may never see his best friend again. He didn't even flinch when Jack's phone began ringing.

Danny sat on his blanket, staring wide-eyed at the shattered remains of the Boo-merang that had hit him in the face not five minutes before. His mind raced, repeating thoughts like 'Oh god, they found me,' and 'Theyr're coming, they know I'm here.' His heart pounded in his ears almost to the point of blacking out, and his breath quickened to near hyperventilation. He stared unblinking at the Boo-merang. Several different scenarios played out in Danny's head like a 'choose your own adventure' story. Images of his parents hunting him like the ghost like he was, or studying him like some lab rat, reporting him to the GIW, mostly.

With that mentality, Danny scrambled off his blanket and rolled it up, quickly shoving it into his bag and picking up the Boo-merang that he had shot with an ectoplasmic blast. He jumped at the sigh of James, who actually laid right behind where he had been sitting. The panicked teen make a quick hop over him and trotted away, tossing the Boo-merang noisily behind a bush. After looking up into the sky, he decided it was too light out to change forms. If his parents were on the road now, they'd be able to see him in broad daylight. He didn't run, but he was walking very quickly.

James jumped at the clatter from the discarded tracking device. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, hearing receding footsteps and noticing that they were missing someone in their group. He turned around and jumped up out of his bundle and ran after Danny. "Danny!" he called out.

Danny flinched at the sound of his name. He pretended not to hear and kept walking along the edge of a very steep hill that they had passed on the way to their resting point.

"Danny!" James grabbed his shoulder, "Dude, if you're making a head start to Amity, it's in the other direction." He informed him, "Come on, get away from the hill," He pulled him away from the edge, "You're not thinking clearly." he said, almost afraid that Danny might try and jump of and even hurt himself.

Danny's eyes didn't meet James' darting back an forth on the ground as he opened and closed a fist, "N-no... I'm not going."

"Danny-"

"They _know_ I'm here, James." Danny snapped, "And considering how fast my dad drives, it won't be long before they find me."

James paused, "H-how did they find you?" He looked up, looking for a drone or anything of the sort.

"It's... It's complicated, you wouldn't get it-" Danny stammered, "Anyway- I... I'm not ready to go home just yet- I need more time to think."

"Are you scared they might hurt you?" James asked, "I mean- I _get_ that, but-"

"Yeah- no-" Danny groaned in frustration and held his head, "I don't know." he panted, muttering unintelligibly.

"Danny- Danny!" James snapped and grabbed Danny's shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eye, "Listen, whatever it is- my folks and I will _not_ let them hurt you, understand?"

Danny looked at him with terrified, ice blue eyes. At the moment, they occasionally flickered green. James noticed the slight glow they gave off and was even able to see Danny's breath. James took a deep breath, "Take a deep breath with me, okay?" He breathed in though his nose, feeling Danny's trembling body forcing him to do the same. James then let it out through his mouth, "Okay, can you do a few of those with me?" He repeated the process. Gradually, Danny's shaking stopped as he closed his eyes, his exhales coming out in long even flows of mist. James tilted his head and rose an eyebrow in confusion, then regained his focus on Danny's mental state.

After five deep breaths, James nodded and spoke again, "Better?"

Danny sighed, "N-not really..." he said, his voice had grown very quiet. "I'm..."

"I know- you're anxiety levels are through the roof right now and you were starting to freak _me_ out." James cut him off, "You're scared." he said, "Whatever you've got going on with you is a big deal." he said, "And you're afraid your folks won't accept you, and worse yet- you're afraid that they may even hurt you, right?"

Danny nodded wordlessly, looking down at Jame's ripped hiking boots.

"Look at me." James' tone hardened, inkling Danny to do as he said, "I understand what you've been though." He said, "Trust me." He sighed, "Running away is the coward's way of handling the situation." His hands lowered to Danny's upper arms. "And in the end, it'll only make things more difficult." He explained. "If..." He sighed, then he swooned, gripping Danny's arms for balance, "Whoa..."

Danny held onto James' arms, "Dude, are you okay?"

James shook his head, "He knows..." he stepped aside and leaned against the closest tree and vomited. He coughed and spat, "He's here..." he panted.

"Who?" Danny asked, "Wait- who's here?" Danny looked around. A sudden chill surged through his body, causing his to shiver in response.

"We gotta get-" James gagged and threw up once more.

"Dude, what's going on?" Danny commanded, "Who's here?!" he demanded and turned around again.

Behind him he heard James yelp. When he whipped around, there was only a cloud of dust.

And no James.

Danny rushed to the ledge, "James!" he barked. All it took was a glimpse of James rolling down the steep hill for Danny to try and jump after him. But he was grabbed and brought face-to-face with Carson, who seemed to have snuck on them. "You shouldn't have come here..." he snarled, "And now you've sealed _his_ fate, too." he hissed, clearly referring to James, who was now screaming in pain at the bottom of the hill.

Carson's breath no longer smelling like nicotine, but now it just smelled of death. This man had sent a new lever of fear rushing though his body. "Goodbye, brat." Carson growled before pushing Danny down the hill.

While hitting every possible rock and bush on the way down, Danny's injury on his left side had reopened and begun bleeding again. Upon his landing, he landed into a final bush, but bounced off James before coming to a full rest.

His body burned, but not from the fall. He forced himself to his hands and knees and took a deep, wheezing breath, looking up at the bush he'd landed in. "No..." he grunted. The bush he had fallen in looked strangely familiar. The flowers on the bush resembled roses, but the roses were a deep red with a tinge of pink. For him, it was a bad sign. He forced himself to his feet and took a step, realizing that James was lying in the bush and that he was in an unimaginable amount of pain. Danny lunged forward and pulled James out of the bush, the sudden adrenaline allowing him to ignore the searing pain scraping against his arms and hands. Once James was pulled out of the bush, Danny formed a ball of ice energy in his hand and shot it at the bush, then shot it with an ectoplasmic ray, shattering the bush and destroying every blood blossom that had bloomed on it. He turned around and looked back at James, who laid on the ground, shaking violently in pain, struggling to breathe and staring at the sky with eyes half-lidded.

"James, James!" Danny called, going to pat James' face, but stopped at the sight of burned, near-blistered skin. He hesitated, carefully watching James' hazel eyes flicker red occasionally. "No way..." he breathed. If he knew blood blossoms as well as he did, he knew that they didn't affect humans, but for ghosts...

Ghosts were heavily affected by blood blossoms. Like holy water to a demon, or garlic to a vampire. The bush shouldn't have done the damage that it did to James. Things were beginning to make a little more sense now. He shook his head, "James!" he called out again. He arched his back as something wet seeped down his back. He grumbled and took his bag off his back. "Shit..." he swore. Some of the water bottles in the bag had burst, soaking everything. "Damn it..." he growled, then looked back down at James, who'd passed out from the pain and shock. "Who knew you'd be a ghost, too?" he asked him, _knowing_ that he was unconscious. He threw his bag onto his back and pried his arms under James' shoulders and legs, carefully picking him up and starting along the hill. Danny had made it twenty feet before dropping to his knee, the adrenaline wearing off. He looked around, looking for anything to use as a cover.

Off to the right, was a small cave in the hill. Danny took the opportunity and pulled James to the cave, laying him down in the shade and looking over his injuries. "What the-" he looked down at his stomach. The white fabric had turned a deep red. "That's not-" he checked his stomach, being sure that he himself wasn't injured. "Wait-" He rolled James to his side- his side was soaked in blood. "Oh no, no, no, no..." he took a deep breath and dug through his bag for his first aid kit. After fighting a literal wet blanket for the first aid, he gutted his bag and dumped its contents onto the ground. He grabbed the first aid and lifted James' shirts to see the wound. The bandage that had been there before had fallen off and was now stuck to his undershirt, the stitches that closed the wound were ripped apart, seemingly by force. "What the hell...?" Danny whispered. He took one of the only two water bottles remaining and looked around, wondering what he could do for a rag. He sank, everything they had was crusted in either blood, sweat, dirt, or all three. He hummed in thought and looked at the blanket. The material it was made with could rip easily if one were to try hard enough. Fortunately for him, his enhanced strength allowed him to rip the blanket almost effortlessly. He poured water onto the piece of blanket and carefully cleaned out the wound. James' face twisted in pain, faintly hissing.

"James?" Danny called out. "Hey- can you hear me?"

James remained silent. He only breathed heavily in wheezing puffs.

Danny shook his head and kept cleaning the wound as best as he could. "This is going to need stitches..." he murmured, carefully picking out the thread that was supposed to hold the wound closed in the first place. The skin had ripped unevenly from its original break, meaning closing the wound was going to be a lot more difficult than it probably was before. What happened?

He finally ripped another strip of the blanket off, "James. Hey, man, I'm going to need you to try and sit up." he encouraged, like trying to wake up someone who was just sick.

James didn't respond. He was more than just sick. It made sense to Danny now why James' stomach had been upset; it had to have been some sort of ghost sense of his. James' body only trembled with pain, most likely to be still feeling the burn of the blood blossoms. Danny's body still burned, that's for sure.

Danny sighed shakily and set the strip on his lap, leaning over to try and shake James awake. "Come on, James..." he urged. Eventually, James was no longer trembling. He seemed to grow completely lifeless. "...James?!" Danny's body ran cold.

The older halfa hovered over the lake- Lake Michigan. The last place that had Danny's phone signal. He dove underwater and found himself flying at the bottom, making yet another attempt at finding the teen's phone. "Ah- ah-" he argued with himself, "He's not even a teenager anymore... He's an adult now." He reminded himself. The family had celebrated his eighteenth birthday about a month ago in April. He looked around the bottom of the lake, searching for the device that seemed to have camouflaged with the rest of the lake. After a few minutes, he surfaced again, "Damn it all!" he growled and landed on the pier. The same pier that Danny had stood on just the other night. "It stayed here for a few minutes..." he said, remembering what the GPS tracking had told him, "Then it flew in that direction..." he said, looking up for a moment at the sky, then back down at the water. He shook his head of the dark thought nagging at the back of his mind. "He wouldn't-" he trailed off. He growled, "Stubborn punk." he took a few steps back and took a running start before diving into the water, swimming as straight as he could. He had a good feeling this time around, "Daniel...?" he asked himself. A small, slick surface surrounded by a thick case caught his view, causing him to stop abruptly. He picked up the cell phone and checked the back of the case, confirming that it was decorated with the NASA logo. "Well..." he hummed, allowing himself to float gently up to the surface.

He finally sighed, "Good to know." he said, then landed back onto the pier. He sat down for a while and retrieved his own phone- which he'd kept in a zip-lock bag to keep it from getting wet. He turned the screen on and dialed Maddie.

 _"Vlad!"_ Maddie's voice answered with high hopes, _"Any luck?"_

"Yes, and no, Maddie- I'm afraid... I found his cell phone." He started, "It was at the bottom of Lake Michigan." he said.

Maddie gasped on the other end, _"He's not..."_

"No." Vlad cut her off, "I didn't find him with it- He wouldn't go and drown himself, he's not stupid."

Maddie sat at the table in her kitchen, one fist clenched and shaking with anticipation. "Th-that's good, I guess..." she murmured. "But.." she rubbed her face, rubbing her burning eyes and taking in a trembling breath, "Wh-why?" she asked.

 _"Perhaps he just... needs his space. You called him before you called me the other night, am I correct?"_ He asked.

"Yes..." She nodded.

 _"My guess would be that Daniel panicked when you called and hastily threw his phone in the lake. Had he said anything to his Samantha and Tucker?"_

"He didn't say anything to anybody." Maddie answered the question for the fifth time. Jack was the last one to be closest to Danny, and that was _after_ he had shot him out of the sky. Maddie let out a quiet sob, still in shock and disbelief that they'd been hunting their own son. That she'd captured him _one_ time and tried to cut him open to see how 'Phantom's' body functioned as a ghost. Vlad's voice distracted her.

 _"Don't worry, Maddie... I will keep looking."_ Vlad confirmed for her- her request didn't have to be said. _"Might I suggest checking his credit card history?"_

"He doesn't have any money." Maddie sighed, "I mean-" she nodded, "Yeah-" she nodded, she wasn't a hundred percent sure on that. He might.

 _"I would recommend that."_ Vlad said, _"I will call you later if I find anything. He's going to be okay."_

"Please do." Maddie whispered, "Thank you, Vlad." After hearing Vlad end the call, she set the phone face down on the table. She buried he face in her hands and sobbed. She hurt him, said awful things, threatened his afterlife, and completely disrespected him. She didn't see that he was being a hero. Danny had done so much. How did they pay him back? A few well-placed shots of ectoplasm that could've very well killed him. Insult him, morally put him at the same level as garbage.

She took a deep breath and started upstairs for Danny's room, hoping to find anything about his bank information. With him trying to find jobs recently, he'd opened a bank account so he would get direct deposit. In the meantime, Jack and Maddie had been giving him allowances of fifty dollars a week. She cracked open the door, hating to dig through her son's room, especially when he wasn't home. She took a deep breath and checked his desk, stopping a moment to see the bulletin board he had on his wall. Photos of him, Sam, Tucker and occasionally Jazz littered within the frame, very few of them included Jack and herself. Only a couple of them featured Sam and Tucker with some sort of ghost hunting equipment and an arm wrapped behind Danny's shoulders. That made a lot of sense now. Before, Danny had always seemed distrusting of her and Jack with the equipment. If any of their equipment locked onto him while they were hunting, they could've hurt him. Plus, with Danny in his ghost form, she and Jack never knew, so they shot at them anyway.

Sam and Tucker knew. They were there.

She let out a deep, sentimental breath.

Sam and Tucker always knew. They were always there for him. On top of the computer box on Danny's desk, was a stack of papers and folders. Notes and old schoolwork that Danny had never gotten around to throwing away. A few books on astronomy, pamphlets collected from the science center in regards to astronaut training. underneath it all was a box for a model rocket he'd never had the chance to build. She sighed and moved the rolling chair out, accidentally bumping the desk and knocking over the stack of papers. She scrambled to try and catch some, but they slid passed her arms and flopped onto the desk, handing on the mouse. "Shit..." she swore under her breath as the computer hummed to life, only being on sleep mode after all this time. She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment and turned on the monitor with the intention of shutting down the machine. When the computer came to life and the screen faded on and showed a window.

"Ghost Database?" she read the window. On the window were several tabs with different names along the side, "Skulker, Technus, Desiree..." she read down the list. Then she looked at the ghost on the screen labelled 'Lunch Lady'. On her screen was a picture of the ghost that had been uploaded, as well as a few other photos on a bar toward the bottom. The program used for this 'database' was nothing like she'd ever seen before. It was more than likely that Tucker made it. Above the row of photos, was a flashing red box reading 'Escaped'.

"Escaped?" she asked. She sat down and moved the paperwork off the mouse, completely forgetting why she was in there in the first place. She clicked on another name- Skulker.

After a second of lag, photos of the armored ghost occupied the page, giving a brief explanation of his weapons, armor and skills. On the bottom of the page, the box was yellow and read 'Unknown'.

"Interesting..." Maddie read the information about the hunter, which she found ironic. After reading his page, she went down to the next few ghosts, recognizing a good majority of them. Some ghosts she didn't recognize however, like Frostbite, or Clockwork. Some of them even threw her off. She had no idea that the school counselor three years ago, Penelope Spectra, was really just Spectra. She then wondered where the one named 'Freak Show' was. After finding his page, she found herself surprised that he actually _wasn't_ a ghost, just a human with something 'Jazz always referred to as ghost envy'. She chuckled at the reference. A smile grew on her face, proud of these four children- these four semi-professional ghost hunters- that had even went as far in their ghost hunting interests as to document each one they encountered. Danny seemed to stay on top of keeping the program up-to-date.

Then something caught her eye, a small triangle with an exclamation point had been bobbing on the alerts tab on the top of the window. She clicked on the alerts tab and checked the newest alert; "DF_THERMOS DISCONNECTED" in flashing red and white text. Below it, were labels like "DF_THERMOS: POINDEXTER RELEASED" as well as several other names that she read and hadn't read before in red text..."DF_THERMOS: POINDEXTER CAPTURED" in white text, "GHOST ZONE: POINDEXTER ESCAPED" in red text, "PORTAL 1: BOX GHOST RETREAT" in white text, "PORTAL 1: BOX GHOST ESCAPED" in red text.

"Portal one?" Maddie asked and scrolled down, eventually seeing "PORTAL 2: PLASMIUS ENTER". She recognized the name. She tried clinking on the name, seeing it was attached to a link. It was one of the few names she happened to skip.

Photos of Plasmius popped on the screen and she began reading.

 _Plasmius, like Phantom, is something ghosts referred to as a  halfa, a human-ghost hybrid.._

"Phantom..." she thought for a while, noticing that it was the one name that wasn't attached to a link. She clicked on the home option, then it showed four icons; Danny's logo on his jumpsuit, a black spider on a purple background, a green android on a black background, and a pink flower on a blue background. Respectively, the labels were "DF_THERMOS", "SM_THERMOS", "TF_THERMOS", and "JF_THERMOS". She noted that this was where the kids did their own personal documenting. She paused and remembered the flashing red and white letters that had read "DF_THERMOS: DISCONNECTED". All of the names that had followed and escaped. Danny released every ghost he'd captured that night and lost the thermos. It then dawned on her, "So, _that's_ where all of our thermoses went." she said. She'd have to make five of them and each one of them disappeared on her. Granted Jack still hadn't figured out how to use one. She didn't blame them, neither of them knew how to get them working.

She clicked on Danny's icon. At the top-right corner, she was greeted with the reminder that the thermos was disconnected in flashing red letters. She sighed and looked at the options on the plain black and green window. "CHAT", "RECORD", "THERMOS HISTORY", "JOURNAL", "NOTES"...

She clicked on the journal option. The latest entry opened with several links to older entries. The latest entry was labelled 'graduation'. She couldn't help but to read it.

 _Graduating tomorrow night. So... I guess I finally made it, huh? Sam and Tucker grounded me last night... like Mom and Dad did... They said absolutely NO ghost hunting until I passed the finals today. So now I'm not grounded!_

 _..._

 _I was thinking of telling Mom and Dad... Everything... I might even show them this program and let them in on it... If... they take the news well, at least... I don't know if I can do this. If I can keep this a secret for any longer. They're going to find out sooner or later. Whether it be me confessing it, or them finding out the hard way. Man, I don't know if I could handle it... Dad's a fanatic, he'd lose his mind. He wouldn't believe me and just think I'm possessed, and try and get rid of the ghost in me anyways. That'll hurt. He's modified that Peeler so much it terrifies me to think about how painful it'll be if I get hit by it._

 _And Mom... oh god, Mom..._

 _I love my dad and all, but Mom's the smarter one of the two. If she doesn't believe me, I'd be dead for sure. I KNOW what she'd do to me..._

 _...Like it hadn't happened already a year ago... that was a bad day..._

The entry stopped there. Maddie grew horrified, "Hadn't already- what did I...?" she scrolled through the journal entries and found one dated almost a year prior labelled 'bad day'. She opened the entry and began reading.

 _I can't go home right now... I just can't... After what happened yesterday, I can't face Mom and act like I'm okay. I spent the night at Sam's last night while trying to sleep off the nightmare of what could've been my death. My chest hurts..._

Maddie furrowed her eyebrows, then it hit her like a brick wall.

 _Sam had to close the incision with stitches. She was shaking the whole time. It only made the cut hurt more. She wasn't just scared, she was pissed... I seriously owe Tucker one for coming in when he did. He almost fainted yesterday when he saw the cut. He probably would have if Sam didn't yell at him and make him hold me down. I was out before anything else happened. The cut was maybe about four or five inches long going down the right side of my chest. My wrists and ankles were chaffed from the stupid bands keeping on that table. If Tucker didn't come in with that lie about Jazz... and if Sam didn't get me out of there using the thermos... I'd be dead right now... Such..._

 _Such a shitty way to find out..._

 _I'm staying the night at Sam's for a little while longer. Jazz knows, she's gonna cover for me and tell them that I'm doing a group study and won't be home for a couple of days._

Maddie covered her mouth, "Oh my god..." she whispered. She remembered the whole event. Tucker had scared her half to death by saying that Jazz was in a car accident. Jazz was fine, but Phantom was gone by the time she had returned to the lab. "God, I'm a terrible person..." she took a deep breath, fighting back the urge to cry.

The computer pinged with two new notifications. She looked up and clicked on the notifications. "GHOST ZONE: BOX GHOST ESCAPED", then "SM_THERMOS: LUNCH LADY CAPTURED".

Maddie let out a weak chuckle. Sam seemed to be keeping herself occupied and distracted. Though the method seemed redundant.

"SM_THERMOS: BOX GHOST CAPTURED"

She knew who the Box Ghost was and couldn't help but to laugh, not being surprised that each time he'd escaped, he was captured just about immediately.

"Mom?"

Maddie jumped out of her skin at the sound of her daughter's voice, banging her knee on the underside of the desk. "Jasmine!" she gasped and turned around.

"What are you doing in Danny's room?" she asked, "And why are you going through his computer?" she asked.

"Uh..." she took a moment, "I was looking for Danny's bank folder." she said, closing her eyes a moment to remember. "I dropped some stuff and his computer turned on. I- um..." she looked down at her lap, twiddling her fingers, "I got curious." she said, "This is incredible." she complimented.

Jazz chuckled, "Tell that to Sam and Tucker. They're the ones who put it together." she said. "Danny fights them and find out what they do, and they put it together in these files." she said. "Tucker designed the program. Sam loaded the information." she sat on Danny's bed, "I just took the pictures."

"The photography is excellent." Maddie complimented. "You kids really put a lot of time and effort into this, didn't you?" she asked.

"We try to keep organized. The program was Sam's idea." she shrugged.

Maddie was quiet for a while, staring blankly at the mousepad.

"Mom...?" Jazz leaned over to look at her better. "What's wrong?"

"I..." she started, "I read a couple of Danny's journal entries..." she started.

Jazz pulled her eyebrows together, "You did?"

"Nothing... Embarrassing..." she started, "But..." she sniffled, her eyes beginning to tear up, "I've done so much to hurt him..." she whispered, "He's been through so much and some of it is mine and your father's fault... No wonder he didn't want to tell us..." she wiped her eyes.

"Mom." Jazz's tone was firm, "If I know Danny as well as I do, he'll come back once he works up the courage to face you guys. He doesn't even hold grudges for longer than a week." she explained, "Vlad was another story, but they have a truce now." she added, "If Dad and Tucker don't find him themselves, they'll end up following him back home. He just gets shaken." she said. "You didn't know. And despite everything that's happened, he still loves you guys. He's just scared and probably needs space." she said. "Danny's run off before. sometimes when he's frustrated, or scared, depressed even... but he always comes back. We're the reason he keeps fighting. He just wants to protect us."

Maddie wiped her eye and managed a smile, "He's got quite the hero complex, doesn't he?"

Jazz smiled and nodded, "Hey- have you heard from Dad and Tucker?" she asked.

Maddie shook her head, "They probably don't have any signal where they're at. Last I talked to your father, he said that they tracked the Boo-merang into the mountains someplace passed Lake Michigan. Vlad knows for a fact that Danny stopped at the lake at one point- that's where he found his phone." she said, "So... we're making some sort of progress."

"I just hope Dad doesn't scare him off." Jazz commented, rolling her eyes. "If someone was the worst at coaxing Danny, it's Dad."

"Your father does seem to know exactly how to make people nervous, doesn't he?" Maddie smiled sheepishly.

"And you guys wonder why I never brought any of my friends over." Jazz jabbed.

Jack pulled himself from the heap of what used to be the assault vehicle, blood dripping down from his temple. His head was pounding and everything in his body screamed at him to lie down and rest for a while. Cuts and gashes ran around his body from the glass. He panted and resisted the urge to throw up. He was fortunate for the restraining harnesses that he'd installed, yet regretful of the severe whiplashes that he'd received. He groaned and propped himself on his elbows, partially lying on his back. He tried focusing his vision, going cross-eyed briefly to make the world stop spinning. "Tucker..." he squeezed his eyes shut. "Tu-" he sat up fully, "Tucker!" he called, "Tucker Foley, are you okay!" he called out, trying to orientate himself and keep from falling over. His body ran cold, "Tucker!" he quickly stood up, immediately regretting the idea after falling to the side and bruising his hip on some rocks underneath him. He panted and squeezed his eyes shut. He had definitely hit his head. He burped and exhaled deeply, feeling his stomach churning.

He looked back at the wreck, "Tucker?" he groaned and carefully stood up. He wandered to the passenger side of the vehicle and peered into the window. "Tucker?"

Tucker remained in his seat, though he hung upside-down while still being held in his seat. His hat had fallen off, letting his short dreadlocks fall free, his arms hung limply above (below?) his head, and his glasses were completely missing.

"Tucker?" he pat his shoulder, "Come on, son, we gotta get you out of there." he carefully released Tucker and pulled him out of the vehicle. "Tucker." he gently pat his face.

Tucker groaned, he was in about the same condition as Jack. He forced his turquoise eyes open and flinched at the light, "What happened?" he asked.

"Rock slide." Jack answered and held his head, "I think..." he held his head, "It's all fuzzy."

"Boulder hit the side of the car." Tucker nodded, remembering vaguely. His eyes drifted shut and he slapped both hands firmly to the ground, as though he were trying to stabilize himself. "Everything's spinning- why's everything still spinning?" he groaned.

"You hit your head too, huh?" Jack asked, then he sat back, wobbling a little bit. There was a loud rumble, "Storm's coming in." He helped Tucker stand up, "Let's go find some shelter." he pulled the fading teen over his shoulder. "Come on, kiddo." he grunted. "We still have to find Danny." he urged. He felt a few drops on his shoulder and bare forearm. He looked around, then he sighed, yanking open the back doors to the van. He pulled Tucker inside and laid him down carefully. "Hang in there, Tucker." he leaned against the wall of the van and let his eyes drift closed, "I'm sorry..." he whispered as the rain picked up.

**WOOOW, okay. So I managed to pump this chapter out quicker than I thought I would. It's the only thing I can think of lately. Surprise halfa! Again- the OCs are going to remain relevant. Leave questions or comments in reviews! Or just... Yeah... tell me what you think. The program was fun to mess around with for the Ghost Database. *dances around* I'm excited for this. No flames, please, just constructive criticism. Stay awesome, folks!**


	4. Chapter 4: Found

Jack and Tucker waited out the rain. Once everything had cleared, they begun to scavenge the totaled assault vehicle. As Jack dug around the van in search for first aid, Tucker searched for any electronics that weren't damaged in the wreck.

"Nothing survived." Tucker finally declared sadly. It pained him to see the destruction of all of the tech that surrounded him, but he pushed the thought aside and checked on Jack, "Mr. Fenton?" He asked, "Any luck?"

"No." Jack sighed exhaustedly, "I..." he sank, "Forgot the first aid in the Speeder." he grumbled.

Tucker sank and sighed, "Okay..." he breathed.

"I'm sorry, son..." Jack apologized shamefully.

"No-" Tucker shook his head, "I'm dizzy..." he exhaled, "I'm not mad..."

Jack kept his eyes closed, trying to fight away a pounding migraine. "Okay..." he forced one eye open, trying to adjust to the 4PM light outside.

"But uh..." Tucker sighed, "None of the tech works..." he informed him, "Everything's destroyed. And I can't find my phone..." he said.

Jack nodded, "Okay." managed to open the other eye, trying to focus on the ground below him, "Do you remember passing any rest stops on the way here?" he asked, "Or at least before the rock slide?" he asked.

Tucker thought for a moment, "I think so. But it was a couple miles back."

Jack stood up, "We'll just have to try and make it over there. We'll call Maddie... or Jazz. Have them come pick us up in the speeder." he said. "Maybe we can have Vladdie do a sweep in the area."

Tucker nodded, "Sounds like a plan." He stood up and wobbled. "Oh geez-" he stumbled and grabbed the vehicle for balance.

Jack caught him, "I'm sorry this happened..." he pulled Tucker's arm over his massive shoulders.

"I'm sorry Danny ran off." Tucker said.

"It's not your fault..." Jack sighed and began walking, following the slope that lead back up to the highway they fell off of. "He..." he started, "I..." he slouched, not just because Tucker was leaning on him, "I don't blame him..." he said solemnly. "We... obsessively hunted him for four years. All that talk about ripping him apart molecule by molecule..." he shuddered, now that it was referring to his own son. "I'm... I'm glad I know now..." he said. Tucker knew his vision was poor at the moment, but he could've sworn that he saw that Jack's eyes were watering. "I just wish it wasn't like this..."

Tucker nodded in agreement. "He was planning on telling you... after graduation." he said. "He was just... scared you guys wouldn't accept him... Or..." He blinked, "Treat him as just another ghost."

"He's not just _some ghost_ , he's my son." Jack argued, "Human or not, he's my own flesh and blood and I love him." He said, "I just wish I could apologize to him for everything that Mads and I did to him over the past couple of years." He took a deep breath, "He's been through a lot..."

"Way more than you think." Tucker nodded, then he pulled his eyebrows together, "Man, my head hurts."

"Mine too, kiddo." Jack watched up the slope, squinting against the light. "Thank you for watching over Danny..." he said, going back to the path in front of him. "I've done a terrible job at being his dad..."

Tucker sank, not able to disagree, but he didn't want to agree and make Jack feel worse. He sighed and just settled with, "You didn't know... He..." he sighed, trying not to accidentally kick Jack, "Well... when we find him, he'll tell you..."

"Up here," Jack started stepping up a slope, angled just right so they could walk up it without too much trouble.

"I can walk, Mr. Fenton." Tucker suggested.

"Tucker, you're eighteen, call me Jack." Jack said firmly, he knew it was out of respect, but Tucker was practically family, as was Sam. He let Tucker stand on his own, holding onto his arm to keep him balanced.

"Right..." Tucker found the proper footing to keep going. His head began throbbing again, "I love Danny and all, but I'm gonna kick his butt when we find him."

Jack nodded in agreement, "You can bet his mother and I are going to give him the lecture of a lifetime for this."

Tucker smirked, "I'll be there to see _that_."

"Don't start getting so smug, son, you and Samantha are in for it, too." Jack's tone hardened.

Tucker's smirk vanished faster than Danny made the decision to run. "Y-yes sir..."

They reached the highway, fortunate that the slope wasn't as high as they initially thought it was.

Jack thought about the look on Danny's face after he'd shot him, staring blankly at the ground as he walked. His disoriented son had wobbled and clutched the side of his head from the burning pain as the blood trickled down his chin and neck. That was going to be a nasty scar he was going to have to face for the rest of his life. He processed it for a moment. He did that.

He shot him.

Danny got hurt and flew off with open wounds. Both shots should have been fatal.

Jack slowed to a stop. Those shots would've been fatal. He looked up, staring off into the empty space passed Tucker's head. "Oh my god..."

Tucker turned around and looked at Jack, seeing the expression that he wore. "Uh... Mr. F- er- Jack?" he called and turned to him.

Jack's sky blue eyes darted back and forth, eventually lowering to the ground as the colossal man dropped to his knees, "I..." he held his head, "I could've killed him..." he shook, "I could've..." his voice had lowered to a whisper. "I hurt him... and..." his voice broke.

"Jack?" Tucker knelt by him, "Hey- Jack!"

"I shot him, Tucker..." Jack confessed, "I shot my own son..."

Tucker sank, not wanting to say it was okay, "Jack- you didn't know. You... _wouldn't_ have known." he said.

"I _should've_..." Jack said firmly, angry at himself, "I could've killed him... because I never bothered to make the connection..." he growled, tears escaping his eyes, "I was too caught up in my ridiculous obsession that my son almost paid the price with his own life." He said, "I hit him twice, Tucker. Twice. One in his ribs and the other on his head. I hit his _head_!" he snarled at himself, "How-" he choked out a sob, "He must hate us..."

"He doesn't hate you." Tucker sat down, "He loves you guys a lot." he said, "It might not seem like it sometimes. But he's really protective of that secret. He _knew_ the risks." he fiddled with his hands, "Which is why he did it. And... like I said, he's scared that _you_ guys would hate him." he explained, "Danny's a lot smarter and a lot more mentally prepared than people give him credit for. I mean- he fights dead people on a near-daily basis. And those hits? Do you have _any_ idea of what kind of beating Danny can brush off in his ghost form? Sure, in his human form he gets exhausted faster, but I've seen him get thrown through buildings." he chuckled. Then he cleared his throat, "Not that that's funny or anything..." he took a deep breath. "He's just shaken, that's all. He's not _always_ going to see you guys as ghost hunters, he's going to see you guys as his mom and dad. Sure, you guys are Dr. Jack and Maddie Fenton, but you were 'Mom' and 'Dad' first."

Jack rubbed his eyes, "I certainly hope so..." he forced himself back up. "Sorry about that..."

Tucker smiled and stood, "Don't sweat it." he said, "It's... a hard thing to process." he said, "My nerves were shot when the accident happened."

"I'm sure..." Jack continued walking.

"Sam felt worse." Tucker started to grow distant, "She..." he sank.

"Tucker?" Jack turned to look at the teen.

"...convinced him to go in..." he confessed, "Sh-she didn't think it'd hurt him." Tucker said, "H-he was... convulsing... like he was having a seizure... getting him to breathe was hard enough, then we had to keep him calm and quiet at the same time? Nobody was home at the time except for us, you and..." he caught himself before saying Mrs. Fenton, "Maddie... you two were out. Jazz was tutoring. We didn't know what to do." he sank, "Sam thought she killed him. We didn't think he was going to survive."

Jack looked down. "I'm... I'm sorry you kids had to deal with all that. That you were alone."

Tucker shook his head, "But hey- I'm friends with a superhero now." he said optimistically, "I'm one of his sidekicks." he managed a smile, trying to shove the image of Danny's violently shaking body out of his head. He looked ahead, "Hey- the rest stop!" he cheered, picking his pace up to a trot, then to a jog. Jack followed close behind.

"Please tell me there's a payphone." Jack sighed exhaustedly, as he laid eyes on one, he laughed in relief, "Thank god..." he came to a screeching halt inches away from the payphone, scrambling for his wallet.

Tucker smiled and leaned against the wall for a moment, "I'm going to the bathroom." he panted and turned on his heel.

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"So Frostbite was a friend of Danny's?" Maddie asked, scrolling though the ghost database. Jazz sat on Danny's bed cross-legged and watching her mother disregard Danny's privacy once again. Her curiosity seemed to overrule reason. But with everything that had been going on, it was the best thing that she could do. Anything else would just lead to trouble.

"I guess." Jazz shrugged, "I don't think I've ever met Frostbite." she said, "I don't go to the Ghost Zone."

Maddie continued reading, then looked down at the alerts bar, seeing that Sam had caught yet _another_ ghost. She knew that Sam did this with Danny and Tucker almost like it was her profession, and it turned out that they had captured more ghosts than she and Jack ever had. She sighed, "Lunchtime." she sighed and clicked the monitor off. "Can you call Samantha and have her come back for something to eat?" she asked.

Jazz took a deep breath and rose an eyebrow, pulling a phone from her pocket, "I doubt she'd come home easily." she said, "She's still mad at the boys."

"What's that got to-"

"It's her way of venting." Jazz answered for her. "She's not mad at us..." she typed something in her phone, "She just needs some time to herself, I guess." She tapped a button and tucked her phone away. "She's doing a good job though." she managed a smile.

Maddie stood up and retrieved her own phone, "I should probably check on your father, too." she dialed and started down the stairs. Her eyebrows furrowed when Jack's phone went straight to voicemail. "Strange..." she dialed again, going straight to voicemail. "Hey, Jazzie- can you call Tucker? I think your father let his phone die again."

"Got it." Jazz called behind her.

Maddie retrieved a bowl from the cabinet and began on a salad, making a couple sandwiches on the side.

"Mom...?" Jazz walked in, holding up her phone. Though the speaker, she could hear a short dial tone repeating.

Maddie gave her a strange look, "Is that Tucker's phone?" she asked.

Jazz nodded, "His phone must be destroyed..." she looked back down at her phone. "Something happened."

"Maybe they don't have signal." Maddie suggested. "I'll call Vlad."

Sam walked into the house, sighing loudly with exhaustion and plopping herself down in a chair. She set the thermos on the table and propped her feet on another chair. Her arms hung tiredly at her sides as she leaned her head back, letting out a groan of relief.

"Feel better?" Jazz asked, "I imagine you must've caught every ghost in Amity Park by now."

"Not Cujo." she sighed. She opened her violet eyes and squinted at Maddie as the conversation on the phone intensified... on Vlad's end.

Maddie had grown speechless. Her eyes stared in space, wide open. There was a rockslide on the hill... The guard rails had been knocked out... the assault vehicle was engulfed in flames. It had to be some nightmare. Maddie's breath hitched and she covered her mouth, "No..." she breathed.

Jazz turned around and saw Maddie's body trembling. "Mom?" she asked, "Mom, what's wrong?" she moved the phone from her ear, hearing a faint _"I'm so sorry, my dear..."_ before the call ended. "Mom, what happened?"

Maddie slumped down to her knees and dropped her phone into her lap, "T-They're..." she stared unblinking, only looking at the left false panel under her kitchen sink. Her heart pounded in her ears, her ribs felt constricted. "They're gone..." she said absently. "There... was..." she trailed off, "Rockslide..."

Jazz watched her. Then it hit her- Yes, Danny was missing, but her father and Tucker were... "Wait..." she furrowed her eyebrows, "Wait, wait, wait, rockslide?"

"Are they okay?" Sam asked, sitting up. "Jazz? Mrs. Fenton?"

"The van was pushed off the hill..." Maddie said, "Vlad said the assault vehicle was... there was... fire..." she said still distant. still processing, her eyes watering. Her phone rang, but her eyes never left the false panel. Jazz had glanced down and found it was from an unknown number. "Neither of them... They're..." she exhaled sharply. "Danny's gone..." her hands clawed into her pant legs. "Tucker's gone... My husband's..." she let out a quiet sob, "My husband is gone..." Her screen went black and the phone stopped ringing.

Jazz sat in disbelief, "No... that doesn't seem right. Is... is he sure?"

Sam thought for a while and leaned on the table, she had an hard enough time trying not to lash out since Danny took off, but now Tucker... gone? She shook her head, it didn't sound right.

Maddie's phone began ringing again. Jazz took the phone off Maddie's lap and answered it, "I'm sorry, but this isn't a good time."

 _"Maddie!"_ a booming voice exclaimed from the other end.

Jazz furrowed her eyebrows, "No, this is Jazz. Who is-?"

 _"Jasmine! It's Daddy! Let me talk to your mother."_

Jazz let out a sigh of relief, "Okay." She tapped Maddie's shoulder, "You'll want to take this one."

"Hello?" Maddie answered with a shaking voice.

 _"Maddie! It's Jack! Listen- Tucker and I-"_

"Jack! Oh thank god." she gasped, "Oh thank god..." she repeated, "Are you okay? Vlad said that he saw the assault ve-"

 _"Yeah, we're okay."_ Jack confirmed, _"We're a little shaken. We both might have a little bit of head trauma, but we'll live. I promise baby, we're okay."_

Maddie smiled and looked back at Sam and Jazz, "They're alive. They're okay." she sniffled and wiped her eye.

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As Tucker made his way back to from the bathroom, he passed a couple sitting at a table, both covered in dirt and badly sunburnt, he couldn't help but to overhear their conversation.

"I still don't believe that James would wander off without his bag." the woman held her head.

"At least Danny would have his, right?"

Tucker paused, debating whether or not to interrupt their conversation.

"Yes, but that's not the point." the woman grumbled, "James _knows_ better than to wander off, _especially_ with people he just met. He doesn't _know_ Danny."

Tucker decided it was worth a shot.

"Can we help you?" the blonde husband looked up at the teen.

Tucker nodded and turned to them. Both of them focused on him, realizing that he had been eavesdropping, "Um..." he started, "Sorry to butt into your conversation..." he held his hand out, "My name is Tucker Foley."

The husband and wife each took turns shaking Tucker's hand and gave him their names- Kurtis and Evangeline Richards.

"Sorry, we're actually in the middle of an important discussion." Evangeline said, her tone hardening.

"I understand." Tucker nodded, "But... I'm actually looking for someone. I couldn't help but to catch that you recently met someone named 'Danny', right?"

"Correct." Evangeline confirmed.

"Would it be a Danny Fenton, by chance?" he asked.

Kurtis shrugged, "He never gave us a last name."

Tucker nodded, "Um... He's..." he pulled out his wallet and dug out a picture of him, Sam and Danny, "This one here." he pointed at Danny. The three were sitting on the hood of Jazz's car, each smiling at the camera.

"Yeah! That's him!" Evangeline confirmed, "He was in pretty bad shape when we found him."

Tucker's body built up with so much excitement that he would've exploded. "Hold that thought!" he turned and ran to Jack. "Jack! Jack! Jack!"

"Tucker, Tucker, Tucker, Tucker!" Jack exclaimed right back, "What?"

"These people saw Danny!"

Jack's eyes filled with hope as he was towed to the Richards couple by Tucker. He greeted them, "You folks have seen my son?" he asked with hope.

Evangeline's body tensed, "Are you responsible for that awful burn on his face?" she stood up.

Jack's body grew cold, "Uh-" he stammered.

Kurtis remembered what Evangeline had told him, standing up with her, "What did you hit that poor kid with?"

Tucker jumped between Jack and the angry couple, "Wait! It's a long story! H-He's in the ghost hunting business! Danny got caught in the crossfire and freaked out!" He quickly explained, "Please..." he looked at Evangeline with pleading turquoise eyes, "I just want my friend back..."

Evangeline couldn't bear the look in Tucker's eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Okay..." she looked up at Jack, "Keep better track of your child." she scolded.

"Evie, it's not fair to tell him that, remember?" Kurtis awkwardly nudged Evangeline's side.

Evangeline froze and sank, "Right."

Jack looked at the two, "Uh... is something wrong?"

Evangeline sat down, leaving Kurtis to explain. Kurtis sighed, "Well, the thing is... Danny's not here. We're not sure where he went."

Tucker's body ran cold, his defensive position lowered to where his arms hung at his sides.

"You see- this morning, he and our son were gone. Carson Grey, our group leader had told us that Danny knew how to get to the Lake Michigan and wanted to get a headstart. Apparently James went with him." he explained, "But my son wouldn't wander off without his bag."

"I'm starting to think Carson is full of shit." Evangeline grumbled. "I don't understand how a man as inconsiderate, insensitive, and impatient as him is qualified to walk a bunch of people out into the wilderness on a cross-country hike." she growled.

"Our best bet is the lake. Unless..." he looked at Jack for a moment, then he sighed, "No... our best bet is the lake."

Jack and Tucker looked at each other. "Hey- think we could see what your son looks like? Just so we know who we're looking for?"

Kurtis retrieved his wallet and showed the three of them in a small photo. James had his arms slung over the backs of his parents' shoulders with a wide ear-to-ear grin, freckles littering his face. "The kid in the middle."

Tucker smiled, seeing a faint resemblance in James' relationship to his parents that Danny had with himself and Sam. He glanced at Evangeline, "He looks exactly like you."

Evangeline smiled, "Thank you sweetheart."

"I'm going to call my wife real quick." Jack rushed back to the payphone and dropped the change in the payphone.

 _"Hello?"_ Maddie's voice answered.

"Baby! I think we might've found Danny!" He announced excitedly.

 _"Really? That's- oh m- Where?"_

"Lake Michigan." Jack said, "Apparently he found this hiking group led by some guy named Carson Grey and he made friends with a kid about his age. They took off this morning to the lake."

 _"Okay, I sent Vlad to your direction, what do you-"_

"Tell him to meet us at the lake." Jack instructed, "We'll talk to Danny and make sure he's okay. By the time Vlad gets there he..." Jack thought for a moment. He took a deep breath, "I hope he'll talk to me..." he said, his tone had shifted significantly from optimistic to doubting.

Maddie was silent for a while. _"Have Tucker speak with him first."_ she advised. _"Maybe he can talk some sense into him?"_

"Time to keep moving!" Carson announced loudly. "We're burning daylight, I'd like to reach the lake tomorrow morning!" he called out.

"Probably." Jack confirmed, "We gotta get going." he said, "Have Vladdie meet us at Lake Michigan tomorrow morning, okay?" Taking note of Carson's earlier shout, "I'd like to learn a little bit _more_ about this group that met Danny, see if he's said anything to them."

 _"Be careful, sweetie."_ Maddie sighed with concern.

"I will, baby." Jack smiled, "We'll be home soon. Hopefully with Danny."

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Maddie nodded, "Preferrably." she said.

 _"I'll see you later, Mads."_ Jack said before hanging up.

Maddie sighed in relief. Sam and Jazz had made their own lunches and were eating. She looked at the two girls that were always there for Danny when he needed them. "I'm going to call Vlad again. I'll be back, okay girls?" she smiled, "They might have found Danny." she beamed.

A collective sigh of relief washed over the table. They were relieved enough to hear that Tucker and Jack were alive and okay.

Maddie left the room and called Vlad.

 _"Yes, my dear."_ Vlad greeted. Static crackled over the phone- he was most likely flying.

"Jack and Tucker might have found Danny." she said. "They found this hiking group and they said they saw him- he was _with_ them." she explained.

 _"Great! Where are they? I'll go get them!"_ he offered. The static stopped- indicating that he'd stopped so he could listen.

"Well-" she paused, "They said he was at Lake Michigan. Er- that he'd gone to the lake with one of the other hikers."

 _"Okay."_ Vlad accepted.

"Jack and Tucker are going to hike with the group to the lake and learn a little bit more about them." she said, "Jack wanted me to have you meet them there tomorrow morning."

 _"Can do, Maddie."_ Vlad confirmed. " _Do you know what trail it is so I can track it down?"_ he asked.

"Jack didn't tell me." she pinched her nose. It probably would've been a good idea to have gotten that from Jack. "He said the guide's name was Carson Grey, though."

Vlad was silent for a moment, _"That name sounds familiar..."_ he trailed off, _"Okay, I'll head home and do some research and a little packing."_ he said, _"I imagine Jack and Tucker didn't walk from that wreck unscathed."_

Maddie nodded, "And Danny was hurt before he took off, too."

 _"It's settled then."_ the static started back up, _"We will speak again shortly."_ he said.

"Thanks, Vlad." Maddie smiled and hung up. Relief and nervousness flooded her body. Her family was okay and alive. But there was still the possibility that Danny wouldn't want to come home. The thought scared her, though she wouldn't blame him. She took a deep breath and started back for the kitchen. The girls still needed to know what was going on.

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"Jus' keep breathing... Jus' keep breathing... Jus' breathe... please keep breathing..." Danny chanted, curled up on himself and rocking slightly. His forehead resting on his knees and he hugged his legs and rocked himself back and forth. The silence was killing him. James had been completely unstable. The only sound amongst the silence was his ragged and uneven breaths. James was sick.

Very sick.

Danny knew it wasn't even his stomach that was upsetting him, he knew that his injury- at some point- had gotten infected. Nobody told him James was injured. Nobody had told him what had happened. Danny had a very good clue as to why. "C-Carson..." he growled and shivered. It was the middle of May, but he was freezing. He'd use the blanket, but James needed it more than he did. He figured he was probably cold from the shock or just out of plain fear.

The sky was dark now, and hardly any light showed through the several trees covering the mouth of the cave. Danny's normally-blue eyes shone a bright, neon yellow-green, illuminating some part of the cave as he looked up. Thanks to this, he was able to see in the dark a little bit better. Fortunately there hadn't been any animals that had caught interest in the strange light. In fact, they seemed repelled. Any that had walked by glanced in and trotted away, or ran off.

He wondered what Sam, Tucker and Jazz were up to. Or his parents. He quickly shook his head to rid the thought of them possibly hating him as much as they did when he was just 'Phantom' to them. If he wanted to know how they felt- or at least how his father felt, he'd have to remember the look on his face. After he fell to the ground and involuntarily changed back. His vision was blurred, so it was hard to tell. But after everything had cleared, his father looked at him in horror and in total disbelief.

Danny wasn't sure as to what it was- either his father was shocked that he shot his own son, or that he was Phantom. The Ghost Boy. The quote-unquote "Public Enemy #1". He pondered this in silence and took several deep breaths, the confusion and contradictions of his own thoughts swirling in this stomach and making him nauseous. Then he paused, his body growing cold and nausea disappearing in an instant. Silence.

He snapped his attention over at James, who hadn't make a noise in- now that Danny thought about it- quite some time. "James?" he called, "Hey- James!" He didn't want this to be the fourth time he'd have to revive the unconscious teen, but instead relief washed over him when James took a deep breath at the sound of his own name.

"W-wha..." he panted, "Why's..." he breathed.

"I'm right here." Danny carefully put a hand on his shoulder, hoping he wasn't going to accidentally surprise him and make him go back into shock.

"Danny..." James groaned, "It's so dark..." His voice was distant, and his breaths didn't sound too much better.

Danny hadn't been too concerned about it just as long as he was _breathing_... but the pungent smell of the blood blossoms still lingered. He himself was having difficulty breathing, and his lungs burned just a little bit. He shook his head and replied to James' comment, "We're in a cave. There was no way I was moving you anywhere else. _E_ _specially_ back to the group with Carson." Danny growled at the name. "What's his problem?"

"He's..." James let out a weak chuckle, "He's a ghost."

Danny paused, feeling like a moron for not figuring it out earlier.

James heard the hesitation in Danny's voice. "Real good at hiding it, isn't he?" he scoffed weakly.

Danny shook his head, "Wait- you're no better. You're a ghost, too." he snapped.

"Yeah... and?" James mumbled, his eyes barely parted open, glinting silvery white flecks in the hazel irises of his eyes, making them appear bright gold. "Wha'bout you?"

Danny looked over, then looked down, "Yeah... I probably shouldn't be one to talk..."

"'nd your folks are ghost hunters?" he asked, a weak laugh escaped him, "No wonder you don't wanna go home..." he winced, squeezing his eyes shut in pain.

Danny's eyebrows pulled together in concern.

"What happened?" James asked, seeming to be enduring the pain.

Danny took a deep breath and looked ahead, "I was out ghost hunting-"

James cut him off with laughter, "You, a ghost, hunt ghosts?"

"Might as well do something." Danny flinched, "Anyway, my parents were out too. They didn't know..." he sank, "They didn't know." he gripped his shoulder, ignoring the burn of a few twigs that stuck to his sleeve. "My mom was distracted. So it was still my dad after me. He didn't see that it was me until..." he trailed off. then he sighed, "That's what happened..." he confessed, "My dad shot me... without even knowing it was me. He hit my side first, then he hit my head. That's when he found out. I crash landed and changed back. Dad saw everything, and..."

"And... you ran off." James deduced. "It makes so much sense... Why you wouldn't talk 'bout it..." He grunted in pain again.

He looked down and listened as James fought over the oncoming wave of pain. He ran his hands through his hair, scratching as he brushed back and wincing when his nails picked at the scabs and burns on the left side. He took a deep breath. "You need help..." he sighed. They needed help. "I've had to use CPR..." he trailed off, listening carefully. Mom could help- no... no, Jazz.

Not even Jazz. Sam...

Sam and Tucker definitely. They were the ones he could trust with this. They'd believe anything they'd tell them.

"Three... three times..." he continued blankly, listening to James' wheezing.

"I... miss my mom..." James rasped, "And Dad..." he said shakily.

Danny gripped a handful of his sleeve in one hand until he was sure his knuckles could lock before he was able to let go, "S-so this was... this was your secret... huh?" his hand trembled.

James forced a smile, "I had... I'd run away too..." he forced out. "It... it only made things worse..." he grunted and writhed, "They were never mad..." he said, his voice was beginning to shake. He was getting worse. "Just scared..." he chuckled, "I was some sort of vigilante..." he swallowed hard, "...some sort of vigilante back at home... In Arizona..." he said, "My friend helped me- my friend Katska... he helped me learn my powers..." his voice sounded a little more rushed, or panicked. Danny wanted him to stop. "One day, there was an accident..." he shook, "They found out, I ran off..." he confessed, "But where else could I go? I was sixteen..." James asked. "I _had_ to go back and face them." he was on the verge of crying, but exhaustion was clear in his voice, "They just wanted me to be more careful..." he sniffled. "They just wanted me to be more careful." he repeated, gasping at this point, trying to catch his breath.

Danny realized he was hyperventilating. Whatever had happened... whatever the 'accident' was, James still had a hard time getting over it. This was post-traumatic stress. Danny jumped up and held onto his shoulders. "James, come on, I need you to stay with me." he urged.

James took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, "Danny- I _never_ ask for help... but _please_..." he took another deep breath, " _Please..._ Get my folks away from Carson..." he said, "We _have_ to do something about Carson..." he gasped, "I can't fight him alone..." his voice broke, "Not alone..." he repeated, "I don't want to lose my parents too..."

 _Too?_ Danny's thoughts paused. Did James lose someone before? This 'Katska' person, maybe? Something _had_ happened.

"Please, Danny..." James begged, his voice was barely a whisper now, he wasn't hyperventilating anymore, but he was passing out again. "They're all I have left..."

The small cave was silent again. James' golden eyes faded out as they closed.

This was the deciding factor. Kurtis and Evangeline had _no_ idea their son was so hurt, and Danny knew it. James' injury was infected and had gotten him sick.

Danny _needed_ to go home. It was fact. James' life depended on it. He stood up, the flash of the two white rings illuminated the cave, scaring off whatever animal that had wandered close, attracted to the noise that James had been making. He wasn't going back for him... or his parents, but for James. He scooped the unconscious teen -blanket and all- into his arms, ignoring every burning aspect of residual blood blossoms or the cuts, scrapes and burns from earlier. Once James was settled, Danny kicked off and flew homeward.

His heart pounded in his chest, ringing loudly in his ears. The pounding was drowned out by the wind blowing past. He looked down and got a quick glance at how pale James had grown. "James, can you hear me?" he asked.

No response. Not good.

Danny sighed, "Sam is going to kill me..." he exhaled. Amity Park was a lot closer than he'd anticipated; just across the lake. It took him no time before he found his house. He went intangible, only so he wouldn't be seen. The cityscape was familiar and comforting, yet unnerving at the same time. He missed it in the two days he'd been gone. Though he'd planned on being gone a little bit longer. He was _not_ mentally prepared to be home so soon. He was nervous. He took a deep breath and peeked into his bedroom window. The streets were quiet, which was good- it meant it was late and most everyone was in bed. Which was likely that Mom was in bed. He hoped.

His room was void of any life. He was thankful, even though he ran off, he still didn't want anyone going through his room. He phased through his window and carefully laid James on the bed. He quickly and silently rummaged through his closet to look for some new, clean clothes. James needed to get rid of the clothes still littered with blood blossom sticks and dead leaves. Danny had blistered his fingertips trying to pick out what he could.

He turned around and heard his computer ping. Ghost hunting? Good to know they were still doing _that_ at least. Danny glanced at it bitterly. Then he rolled his eyes and sat James up, getting absolutely _no_ cooperation from the unconscious halfa. He pulled off both shirts and decided it'd probably be easier to take care of his injuries if he wasn't wearing a shirt, so he laid him back down after tossing the blanket aside. He hesitated in trying to take of James' shredded jeans. He took a deep breath, "He'll thank me later..." he quickly (and awkwardly), pulled off the jeans and replaced them with a pair of his own pajama pants. He sighed and phased through the door, heading to the bathroom and washing his hands quickly. He retrieved a first-aid kit and rushed back to his room, as silently as possible. He looked James over, not knowing where to start. He needed Sam for this. The computer pinged again. Danny rolled his eyes, checking the time on his clock. 4 AM.

"Shouldn't they be in bed?" he asked in a whisper and shook the mouse, finding the database on a totally different screen than what he'd left it on. "Who went through my computer?" he asked quietly. He froze, thinking he might have heard someone moving in the house. He exhaled and crept over to lock the door. It was just the air conditioning. He went beck to his computer and clicked on the alerts, SM_THERMOS: SKULKER CAPTURED. Danny took a deep breath, "Geez, guys..." he sighed and right clicked on the notification, a small menu showed up, 'Ignore', 'Disconnect', 'Show Location'.

Danny clicked on 'show location' and the screen flashed, showing him a map. "There." he jumped up, "Don't go anywhere." He shoved the contaminated clothes into a garbage can and tied the plastic bag shut. He shook his head and unlocked his door, opening it and preparing to step out, forgetting comepletely to be silent. He stopped dead in his tracks as his heart began pounding. Of course she was awake. Of course he had to have someone with him. Of course he walked out into the hallway with glowing skin, white hair and a black and white jumpsuit. "M-Mom!"

**Busted! So I BS'd the first two thirds of this chapter. Basically everything over the phone and on Maddie's end. Had a weird morning that resulted me to go home from work on the account of an anxiety attack. But anyway! Let me know what you think, please. I had to put a ton of the 'XXXXXXX's because I'm trying to separate the transition a little bit better. I tried leaving a double space between paragraphs, but this site was editing them. I even tried '*****' and '^^^^^^'... I guess X's will have to do. I don't have much else to say, so stay awesome folks!**


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